


the Continued Awkwardness of being an official "Non-Avenger" Avenger

by Anti_Social_Headphones_Kid



Series: The Unmentioned Awkwardness of being the youngest Avenger [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Harley Keener & Peter Parker are Siblings, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Not Ashamed, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Not Beta Read, Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Secret Identity, The Avengers Are Good Bros, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-05-19 08:17:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 56,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19353073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anti_Social_Headphones_Kid/pseuds/Anti_Social_Headphones_Kid
Summary: Spidey's gotten closer to the Avengers ever since they've returned, and everything seems to be going smooth- his identity is still safe, and he's friends with the Avengers- it couldn't get any better then that, right?The Avengers on the other hand, have started to love having the Spider around- but their opinions on his identity are getting confusing, to say the least...---or---it's honestly just more of the Avengers and Spidey just chillin' with confusion, awkwardness, secret identities, and sometimes action(this is the second part of the series btw, I'm pretty sure you can read it w/o the first part, but the first part has story building and stuff, so you might enjoy it more if you read that before)(((Rated T for swearing only!!!)))





	1. a potato flew around my room before you came- AAAGGGHHHHHHH

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ok, so quick recap of everyone's theories on Spider-Man
> 
> older than Wanda, has a wife/girlfriend, and possibly children: Clint, Rhodey, Sam, Steve
> 
> same age/younger than Wanda: Wanda
> 
> Respects his space and won't intrude: Natasha, Vision, Scott
> 
> Actually knows who he is: Tony, Happy, Ned, Peter(? I doubt he remembers when he's sleep deprived sometimes tbh)
> 
> Honestly doesn't care at this point: Harley, Spider-Man
> 
> \------------------------------------------
> 
> Thinks his powers come from the suit: Sam, Natasha, Clint, Rhodey
> 
> Thinks he was experimented on: Wanda, Steve
> 
> knows a smol spider bit him: Peter, Ned, Tony
> 
> Hasn't really questioned it: Vision, Scott
> 
> Still honestly doesn't care: Harley, Spider-Man
> 
> \------------------------------------------
> 
> hasn't even met Peter yet: Scott, Pepper (maybe soon)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guy's!! I just wanted to say thank you so much for all the support on my last fic!!! I definitely didn't think it would get so many views, comments, and kudos???? 
> 
> I just wanted to write this after Endgame for some positivity and shit, but I didn't think anyone would read it??? much less that there would be people wanting a sequel???
> 
> So thank you!!!!
> 
> That being said, this is only my second fic I've ever posted, so if you have any constructive criticism, or spot any spelling errors, please let me know!!!
> 
> <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

Peter was swinging towards the compound after school on Friday.

  
He usually had a lab day with Mr. Stark and stayed over for the night, but the billionaire had cancelled last minute- which had been a bit disappointing at first- but since he was pretty close with the other Avengers now, he had decided to go anyways and hang out for a while with the others.

  
When Spider-Man walked ( _thwipped_ ) into the compound’s living room, he saw all the Avengers huddled on the couch, watching something, but the moment he entered, the tv had shut off.

  
“Hey, what’s up everyone?” He voiced cheerfully in an attempt to hide the anxious wonder from the fact that they had suddenly turned off the tv when he came in. _What if they were trying to find out my identity?_

  
“Oh, it’s just you,” Sam- who had the remote in his hand- sighed in relief, and turned the tv back on.

  
“Should I be offended or sorry that it’s ‘just me’?”

  
“He didn’t mean it like that,” Natasha assured him, turning to give her fellow spider a smile. “We’ve just been watching something very interesting.”

  
“And placing some bets,” Clint added as he threw a small pack of _Life Savers_ on the table. “Only we’re using candy since we’re all pretty much broke, and Laura wanted me to take some of the candy that our house is overflowing with.”

  
“Sounds fun, can I join in?”

  
“Do you have candy?” Clint asked, to which Spider-Man produced a small pack of gummy worms and showed it to the archer.

  
“Welcome in,” Sam stated, moving over to make room on the couch for the vigilante.

  
Peter jumped on the couch and stared at the screen, which currently, was showing the security footage of Mr. Stark’s personal lab. He waited for the scene to change to whatever they were watching before (he was guessing it was either a cooking show, or _The Bachelor_ or something like that- it was hardly ever sports), but it stayed on the lab.

  
“So, uh, what’re we betting on?” Spider-Man whisper-asked Clint, who was sitting to his right.

  
“This.”

  
“Hate to break it to ya, but that’s just Mr. Stark.”

  
Natasha (who was sitting on the armchair next to the sofa), leaned over to look Spider-Man in the eyes seriously.

  
“He’s not alone in there.”

  
“What?”

  
She nodded and sat back without another word.

  
Peter sighed in slight frustration.

  
“Can someone just explain why exactly we’re watching Mr. Stark and placing bets on him?”

  
Wanda, who was sitting with Vision on the other couch along with Steve finally clarified: “we’re trying to figure out if the kid in Tony’s lab is his son or not. I’m guessing that he is, but Vis thinks it’s all just an act-”

The android nodded. “I’m confident that if Tony had a child, I would have known about it.”

  
“-Clint and Sam also think it’s his son, but Nat and Steve aren’t convinced.”

  
“O-oh…”

  
Peter was pretty sure he already had a good idea of who they were talking about, and he wasn’t exactly sure how to respond. His initial thought was to _freak the hell out_ since they flat-out spoke about him being _Spider-Man_ when in the lab, and now everyone was gonna find out _Omigod what do I do?_

  
But his second thought was to stay and place some bets, make it seem _totally normal_. After all, F.R.I.D.A.Y made sure all the files were severely locked, and he was pretty sure that Mr. Stark would do anything to keep his identity safe, so he opted to stay and just chill. Yep. Totally normal.

  
The screen was still only showing Tony (apparently ‘the kid’ had just left to get something, and would be back soon), so the Avengers had taken the break time to argue over their points and such. He tried to figure out what day it was that they were watching, but none of it seemed familiar. He turned to Rhodey- who was beside Sam- to ask his opinion, but Sam interrupted them.

  
“Nononononono.”

  
“Wha-“

  
“It’s a rule- no one can ask Rhodey since he’s the only one who knows the truth here. It’s cheating.”

  
“He-he knows?” Peter asked weakly.

  
“How’d you think we would know who won? We can’t just go up to Stark and ask.”

  
“Right. Th-that makes sense.”

  
But he was really unsettled now. He had never met the colonel as Peter Parker so how did he ‘know’? Did Mr. Stark tell him? He kept uncomfortably glancing at Rhodey for what felt like forever, trying to look for any signs that the colonel knew who he was, but the man kept his eyes on the screen.

  
It felt like forever until the kid in question finally came onscreen, his curly light-brown hair and friendly smile evident as he walked up to Mr. Stark.

  
Peter tensed.

  
The world seemed to slow.

  
That wasn’t-

  
“H-hey, when is this from? Like, a few months ago, or like…”

  
“This is live footage,” Rhodey answered, unfazed.

  
But Peter was shook, to say the least. That- that wasn’t him.

  
“You’re finally back Potato Gun?” The onscreen Tony glanced at his watch. “Not like it took seventeen minutes or anything.”

  
“Yeah, _fine_ old man. Maybe it’d go faster next time if you actually told me what to look for.”

  
Tony shot back with some other quip, and the kid kept responding, but Peter blocked it out. He was fine. Tooooootally fine. He wasn’t jealous, _definitely_ not. Mr. Stark would’ve told him if he had another- if he _had_ a kid. (Not _another_ kid, noooooo. Peter didn’t want Tony to think of him as his kid, he really didn’t), so he really had no hesitations when he threw down his pack of gummy worms and said: “I guarantee you, that’s not his kid.”

  
Steve, Natasha, and Vision, all seemed glad to have another on their side, while Wanda, Clint, and Sam all groaned, but everyone went quiet again as the two onscreen started talking.

  
———————————————————————————

  
Clint had seen Tony walk in the compound with a kid, and his father-senses went off almost immediately- he was always looking for someone new to join the ‘ _dad-vengers_ ’. It was great to finally have Scott, but he didn’t come to the compound that often, so he had been set on recruiting Spider-Man (he was almost convinced he had a kid by now- that man knew way too much about school to not have a kid. They’d actually had a good conversation about the school-system recently), so when he realized the possibility of adding Tony to the mix? He didn’t hesitate to call in the other Avengers to find out the truth.

  
And so, they ended up having a casual stalking-party, y’ know, like usual.

  
At first, he honestly thought it was just his hopefulness for more fathers on the team, but as they actually watched the two together, he realized just how fatherly Tony had been acting recently.

  
Was it because he just discovered he was a father?

  
The kid looked to be in his mid-teens, which would mean he was born around Tony’s ‘playboy’ days, so the age matched up. Still, though, they couldn’t be sure, so they ordered some pizza and decided to make a night of it (some might think this is creepy, but when you live with two of the top spies in the world, you get used to this sort of thing).

  
That’s when Spider-Man came in.

  
Clint was almost certain that Spider-Man would see the evident dad-ness, so he was glad the vigilante had joined in the fun. Once the situation was explained to him, he seemed to tense up a bit- _probably just wondering if we’d ever try to find his family_ \- Clint thought. He wanted to reassure Spidey, but that might make things more uncomfortable.

  
Once the kid came back onscreen though, Spider-Man went still. He seemed… weird.

  
He threw down his bet and stated: “I guarantee you, that’s not his kid.”

  
Everyone had their separate reactions of cheering or sighing, but Clint just stared. Something seemed off.

  
Maybe it was the suddenness of his bet placement- he had hardly seen more than five seconds of it before making his decision. Or maybe it was the way his voice suddenly wavered, seeming scared and angry at the same time. Maybe it was how he went completely silent, sparing the others from his awful jokes (another reason Clint thought he was a father), or his insistent rambling.

  
“PIZZA’S HERE.” A gruff voice called from the kitchen, which seemingly snapped Spider-Man out of his trance.

  
“Happy? What’re you doing here?” Spider-Man asked, just as Rhodey answered, “Thanks Hap, I owe you one.”

  
The colonel looked at Spidey in question as Happy walked into the room, still carrying a pizza. “I can’t understand you when you talk over each other,” he grumbled. “What did you say?”

  
“Just saying thanks Happy,” the colonel repeated with a smile.

  
“It wasn’t a problem, the boss had already asked me to pick some up, so bringing an extra five isn’t that much of a bother. Though I was expecting to finally get a normal amount of pizza since Pet- oh.“ he stopped himself and glanced at the others (Spider-Man mostly???) funnily.

  
“Since…?”

  
The man didn’t finish his sentence, but looked at Rhodey, then back at Spider-Man questionably.

  
“Happy?” Rhodey asked in honest concern.

  
“Just- Tony orders a lot. Usually. He ordered a normal amount today though.” He gestured to the one remaining pizza box in hand.

  
“How much does Tony usually order?” Wanda asked jokingly.

  
“Um, three large pizzas, and that’s not counting the breadsticks.”

  
“Apparently I don’t need to be concerned about how much he eats,” Rhodey said with slight disbelief.

  
“Don’t you think it’s a little weird though?” Natasha questioned. “I mean, he has the kid visiting today, and he ordered less?”

  
“He has the kid there?” Happy asked incredulously.

  
“Yeah, didn’t he tell you?”

  
Happy didn’t respond- he just squinted his eyes in confusion, looking at Spider-Man as if the vigilante held all the answers to this situation, while Spider-Man shrunk under his glance, obviously intimidated by the former diver.

  
“But then why- what is he doing up here?”

  
_Oh_ , Clint realized, _Happy hasn’t met Spider-Man?_

  
Rhodey seemed to pick up on this, and got up from his chair, and motioned for Spider-Man to get up beside him.

  
“I’m surprised you two haven’t met, but then again, it was months since Germany before I met him ‘officially’. Spider-Man, this is Happy Hogan, Tony’s head of security, Happy, this is Spider-Man- I’m guessing his name and suit are all the explanation you need on him.”

  
“Yeah, and I’ve got over six months of phone calls explaining- never mind.”

  
“Um, nice to meet you Happy,” Spidey said awkwardly, like a forced line delivery in a bad sitcom.

  
“Likewise kid…”

  
They stood, staring each other down for a few excruciating seconds before Rhodey spoke up in an attempt to save the spider.

  
“Woah Happy, he went straight past calling you Mr. Hogan- do you know how long it took us to convince him he could use our first names?”

  
When Happy didn’t respond, Rhodey glared desperately at the others for help. The weird thing was, usually Happy ignored most people, or walk away when the conversation was done (or getting uncomfortable), but even though no talking was being done, he stayed staring at Spider-Man, looking like he was trying to have a conversation with him whenever Rhodey looked away.

  
Clint caught him mouthing a few words to the man, but reading his lips didn’t clear anything up. He was mouthing things like ‘are you ok?’ as if he was checking up on him, even though they had just met… supposedly.

  
Happy then made said he had to go deliver the remaining pizza to Tony and left.

  
“Sorry, Spidey, Happy’s usually not that awkward,” Rhodey said apologetically.

  
“No-Nah I’m uh, a lot of people are confused about how to talk to someone in a mask I think.”

  
“Yeah, that’s probably all it was,” Wanda reassured, but Clint wasn’t so sure. This day had been pretty strange so far, most of the strangeness revolving around the red and blue clad arachnid.

  
“I’m gonna go grab the pizza boxes for everyone,” Spider-Man stated, heading towards the kitchen.

  
The others responded with a ‘thanks’, but all returned their attention to the tv, excitedly waiting for Happy to come onscreen.

  
After a few minutes though, Spider-Man had yet to make a reappearance, so Clint headed towards the kitchen, thinking it would be a pretty good time to talk with him a bit and see what was wrong. He paused in the doorway.

  
Spider-Man was talking to someone on the phone.

  
He knew he shouldn’t be listening. He knew he should respect the man’s privacy. He _knew_ this, but at that moment his curiosity made him forget.

  
“Sorry Ned, I can’t help you with it right now, but as soon as I get home, I’ll help with the homework you missed.”

  
_His kid? He was definitely talking to his kid about homework, right? Who else would need that kind of help?_

  
“Yeah, I didn’t forget, I’ll pick up the medicine…. Yes, and the ice cream- just as long as you provide the Star Wars to marathon.”

  
_It was his kid- his sick kid. No wonder why Spidey seemed so anxious, even a common cold seemed frightening for your child at times._

  
“Ok, yeah, I gotta go now, but I’ll see you soon, hope you feel better- love ya, bye!”

  
Clint finally had the confirmation he wanted- Spider-Man was Spider-Dad.

  
———————————————————————————

  
That conversation with Happy had been the most awkward thing ever.

  
The head of security had no chill about secret identities whatsoever. It was a good thing Mr. Stark hadn’t tried out the whole ‘double life’ thing, cuz he was pretty sure that between the billionaire and his former driver, they would’ve given it away every five seconds.

  
Happy had no clue if the Avengers knew his identity, but he had pretty much guessed when he saw Peter had the mask on.

  
But Peter soon realized that Happy had assumed that Rhodey knew who Peter was, which made everything ten-times awkwarder.

  
He had made it through the interaction though and to the safety of the kitchen where he could die in peace. His phone started to buzz, and he picked up instantly after seeing that it was his best friend trying to contact him.

  
Ned had been sick for the past few days, so Peter had promised to come over and help him catch up on his homework, but since it was a Friday (when he usually stayed over at the compound), he had at least wanted to go spend some time with Mr. Stark, but then the billionaire had called and cancelled, so he had decided to just come as Spider-Man and stay with the Avengers instead, maybe grab some free food, then head back to sleep over at Ned’s, do some homework (watch movies), and whatnot.

  
He decidedly wasn’t hurt, or jealous that Mr. Stark had blown him off to work in the lab with someone his age… that he seemed pretty close to… that he was letting work on top-secret Avenger stuff… It was fine.

  
Why wouldn’t it be?

  
He sighed and hung up after saying: “love ya, bye!” To Ned- his friend had accidentally said ‘love you’ to Peter once before he hung up, and Peter absentmindedly said it back, so now it was a running joke between them- and went over to the pizzas on the counter and picked them up. He was planning on having a few slices before making up some excuse and leaving when he turned and saw Clint standing in the doorway with a frighteningly large smile on his face.

  
“You’re really excited for pizza, huh?” Was all he thought of to say, while Clint tried (but failed) to wipe the grin off his face.

  
“I’m just glad to know I’m not the only dad around is all.”

  
Oh. _Oh._

  
Peter was wrong…

  
That meant the kid with Tony really was Mr. Stark’s…

  
Mr. Stark never even mentioned it.

  
“Sorry, I really gotta go,” Peter said, walking over to the confused Hawkeye, and thrust the five boxes over to him, and heading towards the nearest window.

  
“Wait, Spider-Man-“

  
“Sorry, my friend is sick, he needs me.”

  
Clint nodded, struggling a bit to hold all the boxes. “I hope you’re sooooon-friend feels better soon.”

  
Peter missed the slip-up as he jumped through the window, _thwipping_ away into the distance.

  
———————————————————————————

  
Clint came back into the room with the boxes and set them down next to the candy pile on the table.

  
“Where’s Spidey?” Natasha asked with concern as Clint sat back down.

  
“He had to leave, it was an emergency.”

“Did he need help?”

  
“Not that sort of emergency- someone he knows is sick.”

  
Natasha nodded and turned her attention back to the tv where Tony and the kid (they had learned his name was Harley, Sam informed him) were working on what looked like a high-tech potato gun. Harley loaded it up and took a shot- accidentally hitting one of Tony’s iron suits- which didn’t result in much damage, but resulted in him getting a playful hit from Tony.

  
He couldn’t help but feel like he’d seen Tony act like that before…

  
———————————————————————————

  
Tony had been keeping in touch with Harley since he had met him.

  
_They were connected_ after all (yes, Tony loved to tease him about that line).

  
He also had given his number to Harley’s mother just in case something had happened.

  
That was who called him earlier that day. His mom was concerned about the kid- he apparently had been getting nightmares about his father recently, which triggered some very unpleasant memories, and it was getting worse. Tony instantly invited him to come up for the weekend to help distract him, and his mother had gratefully accepted, so all was good.

  
Tony knew it was Peter’s day to come, so at first, he was looking forward to introducing them, but he soon started having doubts.

  
What if they didn’t like each other? What if one of them got jealous? It was sort of invalid, but he cared about both of them (no matter how much he didn’t want to admit it), and he wanted them to get along, so he made a last-minute decision to introduce them later, and tell them about the other first.

  
Yeah, that probably seemed like the best option.

  
He had really regretted it the moment he made the phone call though.

  
It wasn’t unusual for him to cancel because of a meeting or Avengers mission- it happened more often than he would like- but Peter was always pretty understanding, and Tony promised to make it up to him on the weekend.

  
This time Peter wasn’t coming over on the weekend though since his friend was sick, meaning today was Tony’s only chance to see the kid for a week… but also knowing Peter, it was pretty likely that he’d just show up at four-thirty on a Monday mourning with no explanation.

  
So he called and cancelled. It hurt when he heard the slight pain in Peter’s voice, but he silently promised to make it up to him somehow.

  
When Harley came in, Tony refocused his energy into cheering up the kid, and they actually ended up having a lot of fun, and he was started to regret stopping Peter from coming- the two would probably be good friends.

  
Just then, he heard a _clang_ and turned as he saw Harley hit one of his suits full-force with a potato, ‘by accident’.

  
Maybe it would be best to introduce them a bit later, and y’ know, spare the world from multiple explosions.

  
He excused himself from Harley and attempted to phone Peter a few times, but he wasn’t picking up- which was pretty strange, but it was mostly concerning since whenever he refused to answer, it meant he was doing something Tony had previously told him not to do- but when he asked for the location of the suit, he recognized it as Peter’s friend’s (Ned?) house, so he let it be.

  
———————————————————————————

  
After about another hour of watching Tony, the Avengers finally decided to end it and ask Rhodey for the results- which of course meant that Vision, Natasha, Spider-Man, and Steve had won.

  
(Let’s just say that Clint lost way too much candy that day)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!!
> 
> <3<3<3


	2. I eat Cheerios because they're heart healthy! And my heart has been severely damaged. So John(Tony) if you're out there-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i love Rhodey and Natasha, and I feel like their friendship needs more attention, so WHAM BHAM!
> 
> (shanga-langa-an-shalalalalala- guess what soundtrack I listened to while writing this...)
> 
> wdym? Natasha? she had a completely happy ending, surrounded by her family, now fully returned, and is currently enjoying life to the full, alongside Tony, who is enjoying life with Peter and Morgan. ALIVE. Gamora and Vision are totally fine too? I don't even know why you mentioned them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY EVERYONE!!!!! FAR FROM HOME COMES OUT TONIGHT AND I'M FREAKING OUT!!!!! 
> 
> So yea, I'm seeing it tonight, but I really wanted to post a new chapter before, so I'm not sad or whatever since it's probably going to break me emotionally, not gonna lie.
> 
> I also put a lil part with Ned and Peter in here too, since I love their friendship more than words can describe, and I really hope I don't have to write any angst about it in the future... (pls Marvel, don't hurt Ned... it's all I'm asking of you)
> 
> Sorry this took so long for me to write btw, I'm not lazy, I promise- I just wrote three other chapters, but the story hasn't gotten to that point so far, so I can't post them yet... (one of them includes Carol, and I'm so excited for you guys to read it, since it actually turned out slightly ok???)
> 
> This chapter is slightly different than what I normally do, but I hope you still enjoy it!!

It had been a few weeks since the Avengers had been rescued by Wanda and Spider-Man, and the team had all pretty much adopted Spidey as an honorary-Avenger by now.

 

The Avengers had started to get used to having Spider-Man around, and the man seemed to be getting used to being around them as well. He had been frequently stopping by during the week, and always would come on the weekends for training with Natasha or target practice with Clint. It wasn’t rare to walk into the kitchen at four in the morning to see Spider-Man ‘borrowing’ food from the refrigerator, or for them to all be found having a movie night together, with way too many Avengers attempting to squish on the same couch together even though there was plenty of other seating options in the room. Overall, he was really starting to feel like apart of the team.

 

All of them began to wonder why he _wasn’t_ apart of the team. He wanted his identity to remain a secret, sure, but there had to be a way for him to be able to join without putting his normal life and family in danger- but even then, it was hard to know if it was something that Spider-Man would want, and none of them really were sure if they wanted to ask. They had no clue what his reaction would be, since when the position had first been offered, it had apparently been months before he showed his face (mask) at the compound again, and as much as they didn’t want to admit it, none of them wanted the arachnid to be gone- he had really helped them grow into a family again, and had become apart of it.

 

Still though, when all was said and done, Spider-Man was more of a solo hero, and his focus seemed to always be on saving as many people as possible. So as the weeks passed by, they stopped seeing him as much- much to everyone’s mute dismay.

 

But the one person who couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, was Natasha (she almost had her own version of a spider-sense when it came to her fellow arachnid).

 

Over a week ago, Spider-Man had been with them, seemingly enjoying himself as they made theories on who the new kid in Stark’s lab was, but as the time went on, he acted more and more unusual- and not in his usual strangeness like when he said something like _‘I can ingest your kneecaps in the most pain-inducing delicious way’_ , but in the way he almost invisibly tensed, and the way his voice was lacking the normal excitement.

 

It was less than an hour before he abruptly left without saying bye (something uncommon for him), and while everyone else seemed content to let it slide, there was something that didn’t seem to fit in Natasha’s mind; Spider-Man was obviously uncomfortable long before he heard of the so-called ‘emergency’ even though he seemed fine when he first came in.

 

And he hadn’t come by since that day.

 

She would’ve been concerned about his safety if it weren’t for the frequent reports of Spider-Man sightings around Queens. So while everyone missed him and wondered what was keeping him away, they mostly chalked it up to him being occupied in hero work.

 

The only other person who seemed concerned about him being away was Stark. Every time he came across another Avenger, he would ask if Spider-Man had been in contact with them (she even heard him talking to Scott on the phone about it, even though the man hadn’t even met Spidey since Germany).

 

Eventually, Tony had stopped asking as much and invested himself in his work and asked for anyone who talked to Spider-Man to tell him as soon as possible.

 

Tony had been hiding in his lab ever since, and Rhodey had been voicing his concern to the widow.

  
“It’s been getting worse ever since Harley left,” the colonel explained. “And he’s refusing to talk to me about it- which isn’t that unusual- but lately he’s been getting better with explaining himself. And on top of this, apparently, Spider-Man’s been refusing all his calls which is causing him even more stress.”

 

“Do you think maybe Spider-Man ghosting him is why he’s gotten so miserable?”

 

Rhodey considered this, but he still seemed unsure.

 

“This reaction is more like when he and Pepper had that ‘break’. And he hasn’t been in constant communication with Spidey for a while; I mean, the first time he even came by the compound since he turned down being an Avenger was when you invited him… but he and Tony _do_  act close even though they don’t seem to talk to each other all that much- hell I’m pretty sure Wanda’s spent more time with Spider-Man than Tony has.”

 

“Yeah, but there’s one thing that Tony has over all of us.”

 

“What?”

 

“He knows who Spider-Man is. For all we know, Tony could be spending time with Spider-Man as whoever he is under the mask.” The spy pointed out. “Also the fact that Stark has taken so many extreme measures to hide his identity added with our promise to avoid uncovering anything private about him means that Spider-Man could easily be anyone we see working here, and we’d still never find out.”

 

“You’ve given a lot of thought to this, huh?”

  
“I need to have the bases covered in case he turns,” she stated matter-of-factly. “Not that I think he ever will, it’s just good to have a backup plan… also, it took like, less than three minutes to place out a theory like that.”

 

“That’s impressive… and low-key scary, not gonna lie.”

 

Natasha shrugged.

 

“I’m just saying we don’t really know the extent of their relationship, and the fact that Spider-Man stopped showing up at the same time Tony started backtracking doesn’t seem like a coincidence. And something tells me that there’s a lot more to that story.”

 

———————————————————————————

 

After talking to Rhodey some more, they decided to try and figure it out together- Rhodey would go talk with Tony, and Natasha would speak Clint, since he was the last one to be with Spider-Man that day, and he seemed to be concerned in a different sort of way.

 

I wasn’t hard to find which vent the archer would be hidden in, but it did take three consecutive minutes of banging it with a broom to get him out (yes, she could go up there and force him out herself, but it got tiring after doing to so much, and this was much easier).

 

Clint peaked out of the vent and lowered himself to the floor

 

“Hey Nat,” he said casually, albeit a little annoyed. “What’s up? Did F.R.I.D.A.Y announce another mission?”

 

“Nah- I just need to talk to you for a second.”

 

“Ok, _shoot_.”

 

Natasha ignored Clint’s bad pun and moved on to her questions.

 

“Do you know what happened with Spider-Man recently? He hasn’t been around after that night, and you were the last to talk with him.”

 

“No, he didn’t say anything other than his friend was sick.”

 

“Did he mention who his ‘friend’ was?”

 

“No.”

 

For a trained assassin, the archer wasn’t very good at lying to Natasha.

 

“Come on Clint, you know you can’t actually succeed in lying to me, what’s going on?”

 

“Well,” he hesitated, but seeming to make up his mind, he continued: “I’m mostly just guessing here since he didn’t tell me this himself, but I’m pretty sure it’s his kid that’s sick.”

 

“His _kid_? Spider-Man has a kid?” She firstly assumed that Clint was joking, but the seriousness in his eyes showed that he believed what he was saying with every ounce of himself. Natasha trusted Clint- they were best friends- but she was finding this a little hard to believe… the vigilante had always seemed so young, and it was surprising to find out that there was a possibility he might be older than Wanda.

 

“I know it sounds really weird,” Clint admitted. “But I’ve been putting it together for weeks now, and after hearing his conversation on the phone, I’m pretty sure I’m right about this.”

  
Natasha nodded slowly, still trying to wrap her head around this new information.

 

“So that’s why you think he’s been away for so long?”

  
“Probably- if one of my kids were sick I’d drop everything for them until they felt better, and usually I need to stay for a while after too, so I can keep all those promises I thought they'd forget about so they'd agree to take their medicine… So Spidey’s probably fine, he’ll be back soon enough.”

 

Clint said bye to Natasha (he was going home for the next week), and the Spy went to train in the gym while she waited to hear from Rhodey.

 

The information she just received was odd, but she trusted Clint more than anyone else, so she decided to believe what he told her until it was proved otherwise.

 

———————————————————————————

 

“Tones?”

 

“Hey platypus, what’s bringing you down here? From the looks of it, it’s still daytime, meaning I haven’t gone past the lab deadline that you, Pep and the kid gave me.”

 

Rhodey attempted to hide his surprise when he heard a third person in the line up of telling Tony to go to sleep on time- ‘the kid’ was most likely Harley since that was the only ‘kid’ that Tony spent much time around, but it also slightly bothered him since he hadn’t heard him call Harley that before- the only person Tony had called that before, was Spider-Man (and some of his younger interns, but Rhodey was pretty sure that was only because Tony couldn't remember their names).

 

“I’m actually surprised you listened to the bedtime we gave you,” the colonel admitted. “But actually, Nat and I were talking about Spider-Man, and since we haven’t seen him in a while, we just wanted to make sure he was alright.”

 

“He seems to be doing fine,” the billionaire responded stiffly. “I mean, I haven’t heard from him, but he’s been active in Queens, so he obviously fine, probably just busy.”

 

Rhodey studied his best friend- this was definitely reminding him of when he and Pepper ‘had been taking a break’. He tried asking a few more questions, but Tony was pretty closed up when it came to the web-slinger, so Rhodey decided to leave the billionaire alone after setting up a reminder for F.R.I.D.A.Y to tell Tony when to eat.

 

  
———————————————————————————

 

“Anything good?” The colonel asked as he entered the gym.

 

Natasha sighed, and dropped the weights she was currently holding.

 

“Depends. You wanna share first?”

 

“Tony gave me hardly anything to off of- something is definitely up with him- I haven’t seen him act like this since that time Pepper left.”

 

“Maybe we should ask her what’s going on?”

 

Rhodey shook his head.

 

“I doubt he would even tell her what’s wrong. The only thing Tony said was that Spider-Man hasn’t called him, or responded to his calls from the sound of it. He is still performing his vigilante act around Queens, so at least we know he’s not in danger, but that’s all I’ve got.”

 

“Clint said it was his family member that was sick- his kid, actually.”

 

“He’s a father?” Rhodey asked in disbelief.

 

The spy nodded in confirmation before continuing.

 

“He also said that he probably is just sticking close to keep an eye on them, and he’ll start coming back regularly soon, but I’m not sure, something isn’t adding up.”

 

“Yeah, he should at least be responding to Tony is everything is alright. You think he’s getting blackmailed?”

 

“He could be. And seeing that he’s not an Avenger yet, it would be easy to try to frame him for something or dig up something from his past. And from how fast he left last week, it could be serious.”

 

Rhodey hummed in agreement.

 

“Do you think we should go check up on our Spider-Friend to make sure everything’s ok?”

 

“Let’s go.”

 

———————————————————————————

 

Peter was actually having a pretty successful day.

 

He pretty much nailed his bio test, made it through decathlon prep, and made plans to hang out with Ned later after he got back from Spider-Manning.

 

And being a crime-fighting vigilante was going pretty good today too- he stopped what would’ve been a major car accident, helped a lost kid find her parents, and hell, he even helped someone who’s car ran out of gas push it to the closest station (he ended up just carrying it in the end).

 

Ok, so he had done less crime-fighting, and more friendly-neighborhood stuff, but that was just as important as battling some high-tech baddie, right?

 

He was about to finish up for the night and head over to Ned’s but he stopped short as he heard thrusters from an iron man suit in the distance (after working with the suits with Mr. Stark so much, he knew how to identify the thruster sounds).

 

If an Iron Man suit was in Queens it could mean either: one- Mr. Stark, or Rhodes was about to battle it out with the latest enemy to the Avengers, which they might need his help with, or two- Mr. Stark was pretty pissed that he had been avoiding him all week, and was coming to talk to him.

 

He couldn’t decide if he was dreading or hoping it was the second one… he didn’t mean to be avoiding his mentor, it’s just he’s had a really long week, and after he saw him with his son…

 

Peter shook his head.

 

He wasn’t going to be jealous of Mr. Stark’s own son, his own flesh and blood. He knew that he had always just been the billionaire mentee- he used to just be the kid Happy watched out for, so this was a really great improvement- but he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. He saw Tony as almost a father-figure- even though he didn’t want to admit it- and he had almost started to hope that maybe, in just a really small way, that Mr. Stark would start to see him as almost a sort of son…

 

It was stupid, and he hated to think about it, but that was probably was this was hurting so much… because that wasn’t something that the billionaire needed in his life (not that Peter thought he needed it before), and now he wasn’t entirely sure if the whole mentor-mentee thing was anything but a bother to him. Who needs some kid to look after all the time?

 

So that’s sorta why Peter had decided to go a bit more solo in the past week- Mr. Stark would see that he could handle it by himself, and then maybe he wouldn’t mentor him anymore (even though that was the last thing Peter wanted to happen), and then Tony would have more free time for the people who really mattered in his life.

 

He was becoming so lost in his circling thoughts, that he momentarily forgot about the fact that the suit was coming closer towards him until he looked up and saw the large metal armour approaching him- it was colonel Rhodes suit, along with Black Widow who had apparently caught a ride with him.

 

Peter tried desperately to fight back the disappointment that it wasn’t Mr. Stark after all, and instead focused his attention on how he had just been standing there, normally (usually normal would be a good thing, but he was suspecting superheroes were pretty much always expected to be standing in cool poses- even when they were debating their parental-figure relationship issues), staring off into the distance, doing literally nothing.

 

He shook off his embarrassment, and walked towards the two new rooftop additions, slipping into his _‘everything isn’t ok, but I’m still super great at hiding my depression’_ persona, and ultimately just wishing he was at Ned’s house already.

 

“Sup guys! I didn’t know you’d be here too- did you need me for something, or is this random rooftop actually some secret meeting place for the Avengers? If it’s a secret place then you probably can’t say it though, right? So like, just blink twice if it is. Woah, damn, I never realized that you guy’s can't really do the whole _‘blink once, blink twice’_ thing with me cuz' of my mask, right?”

 

Neither Natasha nor Rhodey responded to him. The Spy stood with her still expression- albeit a little bit of amusement snuck it’s way into her stare- while the colonel still had on his faceplate, which gave off a look of judgement, even though he probably wasn’t thinking badly of the talkative vigilante behind the helmet of iron (platinum gold alloy).

 

There was a beat of silence before Rhodey finally spoke- even though it seemed like an eternity to Peter.

 

“Um, we just came to check up on you, make sure you were ok and everything is all- and it’s been a while since we saw you last.”

 

“O-oh.” So they had just been tasked with babysitting him was all. And here he was, hoping that he had been making Mr. Stark’s life easier, while instead he just added more of a load to two more people. He was really sucking at this.

 

“Sorry, about that, I'm fine, just been busy... I thought you guys would know if I was ok... sorry.”

 

_Shit. Did I really just imply that I thought the freakin’ Avengers would be randomly checking up on me enough to know I was ok?_

 

“I-I mean like, not that I expect you guy’s to be like, watching me, but Mr. Stark can read my vital signs through the suit, and he gets notifications if I’m in trouble or something.”

 

“Relax, Rhodey’s just being all serious,” Natasha gave him a welcoming smile. “We just missed you, it’s been a while since you’ve come, and since Stark won’t give us your number, we were forced to contact you the old-fashioned way.”

 

“In-person?”

 

“I meant through extensive stalking, but that works too.”

 

“Oh, well, it’s really great to see you! I’ve just been super busy with- um… life, I guess?” He shrugged a little helplessly- it was hard to make small talk when they didn’t know a thing about his personal life. Ah, yes, the struggles of having a secret identity.

 

Rhodey laughed a little and stepped out of his suit. “No worries man, we get it. But we were wondering if you wanted to come over for a bit tonight to hang out- everyone else is really missing you too- I’m pretty sure Sam is having withdrawal symptoms from missing those disgusting pancakes you make him.”

 

This made Peter smile under his mask. These people hardly knew anything about his life, age, or appearance- but they actually liked him. Not for his grades or whatever, but for when he was purely just being himself, telling jokes, and just- not worrying about whether or not he was acting weird or whatever, because his face was hidden, and he was a freaking superhero, so he was allowed to be a little strange- and they still liked him still, apparently.

 

It was a pretty great feeling, making him momentarily forget about all his annoying internal drama about Mr. Stark being like a father-figure to him…

 

“I can’t really make it over tonight (actually I’m kinda late), but I’m free tomorrow, so maybe I’ll come over then?”

 

“We didn’t come all the way over here for a ‘maybe’ Spider-Man,” Black Widow said with a smirk. “And we sure as hell aren’t leaving without a ‘yes’.”

 

“Okokok- yes, I’ll come over tomorrow, but I really gotta go now- thanks for everything guys, see ya later!” He shouted as he leaped from the building, and shot out a web.

 

———————————————————————————

 

“ _Dude_. Are you insane?” Ned asked for like, the hundredth time. “I can’t believe you ditched the Avengers for me.”

 

“Ned, I see them like, every week-“

 

“You see me, like, every _day_.”

 

“-Besides, I didn’t ditch them,” Peter defended, ignoring Ned’s interruption. “I just told them I’d see them tomorrow. Plus, I didn’t even _know_ they were coming, so like, I don’t think it counts as ‘ditching’ since we never made any plans. And I’d rather ditch them than ditch you.” He said honestly.

 

“Bro. I love you, but you’re dumb as fuck.”

 

“ _Hey._ ”

 

Ned shrugged. “It’s the truth. And as you’re best friend, I need to be truthful with you.”

 

“Fair enough.”

 

———————————————————————————

 

It was the next day, and Peter was incredibly dreading his trip to the compound, knowing that he would be hounded by Mr. Stark the moment he went in.

 

Or maybe that was was just him hoping that Mr. Stark cared enough to come see him almost immediately- his fear of being forgotten by the billionaire had only increased by spending time away from him, to the point where he doubted that he would even be remembered if he just disappeared for five years- the billionaire probably didn’t even notice how long he’d been gone, why would he care about some random kid anyway? (Tony cared- Peter knew he cared since he had been rejecting his calls all week, but it didn’t stop the thoughts from coming).

 

But either way, it was better to get all of this over with, and everyone was already expecting him, so he began his travel to the compound.

 

He made his way over to the usual window he made his entrances by and asked F.R.I.D.A.Y to let him in.

 

_“Access denied.”_

 

“Wait, what?”

 

 _“Sorry Peter,”_ the AI responded, sounding genuinely apologetic. _“But boss requested that I deny you access from any windows other than the ones on his personal floor.”_

 

“Come on Fri, I really don’t feel like dealing with this right now!” He banged his head against the window. He knew Mr. Stark would be upset at him for ignoring his calls all week, but he honestly wasn’t expecting him to be this upset.

 

The AI was silent for what was now nearing a full minute, and Peter had just about given up hope of entering that way when the window suddenly opened. He gave out a whoop and jumped in.

 

“Thanks, Fri!” He called out.

 

“Hey,” a new voice called out, causing Peter to turn and face Rhodey.

 

“I’m the one who opened it for you while F.R.I.D.A.Y locked you out, shouldn’t I get that thanks?”

 

Peter smiled a bit- even though it was hidden from the colonel.

 

“Thanks for letting me in Rhodey, I didn’t really feel like breaking a window, Mr. Stark probably would’ve been mad.”

 

“Yeah, probably.”

 

Neither of them mentioned that if Stark was mad enough to lock him out in the first place, breaking window or two wouldn’t make a difference, but Peter wasn’t too keen on telling him he was only avoiding Tony because he would nearly admit to calling him his father-figure and had been jealous of Tony’s actual son for about a week now, and Rhodey looked like he didn’t want to know whatever horrible thing Spider-Man had done to make Tony angry, so they were both content to ignore it for now.

 

The others soon came in: first was Nat, followed by Wanda and Vision, Steve, and lastly Sam (who had been running with Steve, but fell way behind, so he was pretty late), basically, everyone but Tony had shown up (and Clint wasn't there, but he was visiting his family this week).

 

Peter tried to feel relief, but he knew that F.R.I.D.A.Y would’ve let Tony know right when he was let in, so instead of relief, he was battling his disappointment since his mentor had yet to make an appearance- despite being in a room with his childhood heroes.

 

But the disappointment soon faded to the back of his mind as he began enjoying his time with the others.

 

He laughed as he watched Sam and Wanda argue about the proper order of placing the toppings on pizza, and and Steve and Natasha argued over history facts (that appointed him as the mediator, and he surprisingly called Natasha the winner after searching Wikipedia extensively for the correct answer) apparently being born like, a hundred years ago didn’t make you a history expert.

 

He didn’t really realize how much he missed his friends until now.

 

He didn’t really realize that he considered them his friends until now. And though it was weird to realize, it didn’t even freak him as much as he thought it would that he just called the Avengers his friends… ok, i _t did_ , but it wasn’t as strange as he first thought. It wasn’t the Avengers who were his friends, it was Steve, Wanda, Nat, Rhodey, Vision (ok, that one was weird when you said it out loud), Sam, and Clint. And they were just as much his friends as Ned and MJ were.

 

———————————————————————————

 

They were all glad to have Spidey back, he seemed to always bring some much-needed light into the compound, and his secret identity didn’t matter much to anyone anymore- they all knew that they loved whoever was behind the mask regardless- though it was inconvenient that they had no way to regularly contact him, but it was a small issue.

 

They had been sitting in the living room, now debating what to watch (that was always a thrilling argument between a large group of people which also included some with superpowers), when Natasha got up to grab some snack for everyone, and came back holding an incredibly large bowl filled to the brim with different candies.

 

“Dude,” Spidey said with disgust while hanging from the ceiling. “You mixed all of them together? _Why?_ ”

 

Natasha shrugged.

 

“It was easier this way, and Clint lost so much candy last week it’s not even funny, we’ve been trying to eat it all before he comes back, but we haven’t even put a dent in it. I can go and grab some separate packets for you if you don’t like it mixed,” she offered.

 

“Oh, uh, thanks, I’ll go get some later.”

 

“Spidey, you literally eat some of the most disgusting things,” Wanda looked up at where Spider-Man was hanging. “And you’re disturbed by someone mixing a bunch of candies in the same bowl?”

 

The arachnid nodded seriously. “Even I have my limits, Wanda. How did Clint even lose so much candy? Were you guys stealing it from him or something?”

 

“Nah, remember that bet from last week?” Sam asked.

 

“Oh, um, about Mr. Stark’s kid?”

 

“Hey,” Natasha pointed her finger accusingly at the other spider. “I thought you were on our side.”'

 

“ _I was_ , but Clint told me we lost?”

 

“What? No, we won- they lost.” She pointed towards Wanda and Sam who had also been on Clint’s side.

 

“Wait, so Mr. Stark doesn’t have a son? Then who even was that?”

 

“Harley,” Rhodey clarified. “He helped out Tony a long time ago, sometime after the battle with Loki- he was really young back then, but Tony’s been keeping in touch with him over the years, the kid’s really into mechanics apparently.”

 

“Oh…”

 

Spider-Man seemed to lapse into silence after that, strangely enough- he didn’t even cheer that he had been correct, or ask to claim some of his prizes of candy.

 

Eventually, the conversation switched topics, and he joined in once again.

 

———————————————————————————

 

The Avengers were all busy trying to cook in the kitchen, so Peter figured it was a good time to slip away unnoticed.

 

He didn’t bother asking F.R.I.D.A.Y if he was allowed on Mr. Stark’s personal floor and instead used his internship pass so he wouldn’t be rejected by the AI again, which would just really hurt emotionally.

 

The elevator _dinged_ , and he stepped out, heading towards the lab where he assumed the billionaire would be. He was correct.

 

As he entered the room, the first thing that hit him was the AC/DC track blaring loudly. He spotted his mentor working on the far side of the room, so he pulled his mask off, and walked towards him.

 

“Hey, Mr. Stark!” He attempted to be heard over the music but to no avail. He asked F.R.I.D.A.Y to turn down the music, which resulted in his mentor finally realizing someone else was present in the room. Without turning around, to see who was there, he started talking.

 

“For the last time Rhodey, _I’m fine_. You can stop checking up on me every five minutes, I swear.”

 

“It’s um, it’s just me Mr. Stark…”

 

Tony turned around in surprise.

 

“Kid…”

 

Peter awkwardly waved hello.

 

“You want to explain why you’ve been ghosting me this past week?”

 

“Um, I was just super busy?”

 

“Cut the shit Pete- I know your schedule better than I know my own.”

 

Peter looked at the ground. What was he supposed to say to that, especially since now he knew all his thoughts about Tony having an actual son were untrue?

 

_Hey, sorry I avoided you, but I thought you had a son and was kinda sad since I view you as my father-figure and thought I was nothing but a bother? I believed what Clint told me after we just spent an hour placing bets on your personal life? I was just incredibly lazy and didn’t feel like dealing with my personal feelings?_

 

All of these were true, but none of these were things he wanted to tell Mr. Stark.

 

“Um… I don’t really feel like talking about it right now…”

 

He expected to be told something like ‘too bad, we’re having this discussion right now,’ but Tony just nodded.

 

“Just as long as you know you gotta tell me eventually, or I’m taking away your suit and giving it to Clint, who would surely kill himself with it somehow- so his life is in your hands, got it?”

 

Peter nodded, thankful that he avoided it for the time being, but already greatly dreading that future conversation.

 

“Just please, when you’re mad at me, I need you to bring it up with me so I can actually know what I did, and make it up to you.”

 

“I-I wasn’t mad at you Mr. Stark, I-“

 

Tony held up his hand to stop his rambling. “I just need you to tell me when it happens, ok?”

 

“Ok…”

 

“So did you want to join me in the lab, or?”

 

“Actually, the rest of us were gonna watch a movie after dinner, and I was wondering if you wanted to join us?”

 

Tony glanced longingly at his tools but ultimately ended up joining Peter and the others in the living room (he’d do anything to spend more time with the kid).

 

———————————————————————————

 

They were all in the living room, lounging on the couches and Vision and Wanda on the floor (they seemed to like it there for some reason), finally after having decided on watching _‘Rouge One’_.

 

Rhodey found himself glad but surprised that Tony finally seemed happier now that Spider-Man was back. He was even more surprised when he saw that Spidey hadn’t taken his usual seat on the ceiling, but instead chose to sit beside the billionaire, who didn’t seem to mind in the slightest when the vigilante chose that spot, nor did he seem to mind how he gradually moved closer until Tony finally placed his arm around Spidey’s shoulders bringing him in beside himself, almost like a half-hug.

 

It was at that point that the colonel went from surprised to shocked.

 

The only person he had seen Tony be that close with- besides himself, and even that looks years of friendship- was Pepper. But he couldn’t have known Spider-Man for longer than either of the previously mentioned, and they hadn’t really ever talked that much in front of the other Avengers… But they _did_ usually sit close to each other, and they always seemed to have a general comfort with one another, and Tony always seemed to change whenever he was around the spider, though Rhodey still couldn’t quite place what it was- he had called it fatherly before, but it was admittedly strange for him to think that Tony would be acting like that towards some random kid- man… it was just really hard to think of Spider-Man as an adult sometimes, especially seeing him curled up beside Tony right now, he looked so small and child-like.

 

He glanced over at Natasha, who gave him a knowing look as they silently agreed- Tony definitely spent time with the man outside of being a superhero.

 

Rhodey was pretty much now convinced of the spy’s theory that Spider-Man was a worker here at the compound.

 

Looking over at the pair again, he realized that Spider-Man must now be asleep, and watched as Tony pulled a blanket over the man… no, the kid.

 

It all came crashing back to the front of his mind as he realized this: his _‘really old movie’_ references, Tony calling him a _‘kid'_ , the way he had called everyone _‘Ms’_ and _‘Mr’_ when he was first introduced, his odd sense of humour, the way he seemed to cling to Tony. And even the way he got upset when he saw Tony with Harley…

 

Tony had mentioned ‘the kid’ as one of the people who cared for him earlier, and while at first, he had assumed it was Harley, he now realized that it probably wasn’t the case since he lived too far to take account of Tony's self-destructive habits…

 

Natasha, Clint, and the others may be convinced that Spider-Man is an adult with a wife and kids, but in this case, Rhodey decided to trust what he was seeing, and it was clear that Spider-Man was a kid.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading, and see you after FFH!! (aka after the remaining remnants of our souls are crushed).
> 
> Hey, would you guys wanna read a chapter about Ned and Peter's relationship? (It would be from Ned's perspective mostly)
> 
> To be honest, I didn't mean for Rhodey to figure out Peter was younger in this chapter, but it seemed like the most natural thing to happen as I wrote it, so, here we are.
> 
> Thank you again for all your support through comments and kudos, I know I literally always say this, but they mean everything to me, and really help me to continue writing, so thank you so so much for supporting me so far!!


	3. "release all of the sounds that are trapped in your mind..." "aAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SUPRISE!!! Seeing FFH really motivated me, so here you guy's go!!
> 
> It's a little weak imo, but I really hope you guys still enjoy it!!
> 
> (just a warning- it's slightly team-iron man friendly- I have nothing against team-cap I think both sides were wrong and right, but the way I wrote it might offend some people, so anyway, I'd prefer not to hear about it in the comments- you've been warned)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UM.
> 
> I SAW FFH
> 
> AND NO SPOILERS FOR IT WILL BE SAID BUT
> 
> JHTHJKHGFDXSERGHJKNBVDSDFGHJKMFG AGGHHGHGGMHFDGFFGDF I CANT!!! WHAT???? IT WAS SO GOOD AND PETER IS A 2002 LINER SO IM THE SAME AGE AS HIM AND THATS SO COOL CUZ THATS NEVER HAPPENED AND THE STORY AND MJ AND NED AND IT WAS SO FUNNY BUT INTENSE AND IM JUST DYING FOR THE NEXT ONE OMG AND FURY AND PETER REMINDS ME OF THE ULTIMATE COMICS AND UGH IT- JUST I COULD RANT ABOUT IT FOREVER????? MYSTIRIO!!!!!!
> 
> Also I really loved the message of the whole movie since I really related to it and stuff, but ya'll don't wanna hear about that, so annnnyway- a new chapter today because FFH HYPED ME UP

Peter was in the lab, waiting for Mr. Stark to return.

 

After avoiding his mentor for over a week, it was nice to be back, and things were pretty much back to normal. It was still a little bit strained between them, especially since he kept dodging Tony’s questions about the subject, but he just _really_ didn’t want to go there. Each time he requested to talk about it later, the billionaire would jokingly threaten him into talking, but the threats were becoming increasingly dull- he suspected that Tony was afraid of him taking the threats seriously, so it went from taking away his suit to not buying any gummy worms for the next week.

 

Either way, it was great to be back alongside the hero, and he almost hated how much he missed being with him.

 

Since he came in to visit yesterday- which was a Friday- that meant that he had stayed over for the night, and even though he usually went home for Sunday, Tony had called May and convinced her to let him stay the full weekend, which he was grateful for.

 

It was still pretty early in the day- sometime around eleven in the morning- and even though he had already eaten a pretty large amount of food, his metabolism was needlessly burning through it fast, and the fridge in the lab had been almost emptied completely by him, so Mr. Stark had offered to go grab some of Cap’s food (it helped sustain those with enhanced metabolism) from The Avengers level while Peter stayed in the lab; and despite Peter rejecting this offer, Tony went anyway, which left the spider alone.

 

He had been working on developing and testing different combinations for his web-fluids, but after a while, he got bored and realized that Mr. Stark had yet to make a reappearance (and he was actually really starting to get hungry).

 

“Hey F.R.I.D.A.Y? Where’s Mr. Stark?”

 

 _“Boss is currently in the Avengers meeting room.”_ The AI clarified.

 

“Is-is there a mission? Should I come up too?”

  
There was a moment of silence as she relayed the message.

 

_“Boss would like me to tell you to stay put. As it currently goes, there is only a need for three Avengers on this mission, one of whom is boss.”_

 

“Oh… well, if he’s busy this weekend, I don’t mind going home-like, I don’t wanna bother him…”

 

_“Peter, boss would like me to inform you that he’ll come down to speak with you privately before he leaves.”_

 

“Oh, ok, uh- thanks Fri.”

 

After a few minutes of spinning in his chair bordering boredom, the lab doors finally opened to let in Mr. Stark (who was thankfully carrying a handful of Steve’s granola bars).

 

“I’m guessing Fri told you about the mission?”

 

Peter nodded. “I can just go home for the rest of the weekend if you want? That way you don’t have to worry about-“

 

“Kid, I worry about you on a daily basis- it’s pretty much my hobby now- the mission probably won’t take long, it’s just standard procedure. I only have to go since I’ve been ducking mission duty this past week, and I don’t really have a good excuse to stay that doesn’t reveal your identity. By the way- maybe talking to me directly through F.R.I.D.A.Y _isn’t_ a good idea when I’m with the Avengers since she almost played your message in front of them, which would’ve made them confused to find out that Spider-Man never went home last night.”

 

“Right, I’ll keep that in mind for next time…”

  
“Yeah, so anyway. It probably won’t be long before I return, but if you still want to go home I can ask Happy to-“

 

“Nono, I want to stay… if it’s ok?”

 

“Of course kid. You’re free to use anything in the lab, just don’t touch my suits… Nat, Vision and I are the ones on the mission, so that leaves you with Rhodey, Sam, Wanda, and Cap if you feel like going down to visit them. And here’s some food for your freaky metabolism.” He dumped the handful of granola bars on Peter’s desk, and turned to leave, before stopping in his tracks and facing the vigilante.

 

“Also, just a warning- I think Pepper might be coming later today, but I told her I gave my intern access to my lab when I’m not here, so she knows someone else might be here.”

 

“Ok, thank you, Mr. Stark!” He called out as the billionaire left the room.

 

He had a lot of time to kill.

 

———————————————————————————

 

After about ten minutes of sitting in his chair doing absolutely nothing (he wasn’t entirely sure that Mr. Stark was gone for good, so he had been waiting just to be certain until he realized how much time he was wasting) before he decided to actually _do_ something.

 

He _could_ continue working on his web-shooters, but honestly, that seemed like a waste of time since he rarely got to be in the lab alone, and he’d much rather try to do something Mr. Stark would probably stop him from doing…

 

The only problem was, whenever you finally have the freedom to do whatever you want, the actual things you had planned to want to do, suddenly disappear, and you’re left doing less than you normally do because of this. Such was Peter’s case currently.

 

So once he had gotten off his chair to start something, he had ended up just wandering around the lab for a near forty minutes, pointlessly turning buttons on and off. He completed his tour of the lab, and collapsed in his chair again and started eating one of the granola bars left behind for him.

 

It was technically lunch right now, but he didn’t feel like eating an actual meal alone right now, and since the only other people available to eat with were the Avengers, that would mean he would have to suit up before joining them, and it seemed like such a hassle to get dressed up just to go eat lunch with a bunch of his friends who were in normal clothing, and it would take _way_ too much effort too. He may have the time, but having all the time in the world doesn’t stop you from being lazy, it just gives you more of an opportunity to spend time displaying that quality.

 

Karen was currently in control of the lab, so he was tiredly conversing with her as he sat pointlessly at his desk, when he suddenly remembered something that Mr. Stark would never let him do, but would never think of placing any measures to stop him from doing it.

 

“Hey, Karen? Y’ know how Mr. Stark had that monitoring thing for me?” He asked, pointedly refusing to name the protocol.

 

_“You mean the Baby Monitor Protocol?”_

 

He sighed. “Yes, that one. I just wanna know… like, does he have something like that in his suits?”

 

_“F.R.I.D.A.Y has informed me that he does keep a video record of whenever he uses his suits. It’s stored in her database.”_

 

“Do you think she’ll give us access to it?”

 

There was a silent moment, but Karen soon responded: _“she is able to give us access to the files on account that Mr. Stark has given you control in his lab for the time being. Please be aware that no one else has access to these-“_

 

“Yeah yeah, don’t worry, I won’t say anything.” Peter doubted there would anything he shouldn’t be watching- after all, Mr. Stark only wore his suits during fights, so he probably wouldn’t come across any top-secret information.

 

But just to be safe, he asked Karen to limit it to his mentor’s greatest fights, since he didn’t really think Mr. Stark would get mad at him for that- if he found out.

 

If anything, it would be good for teaching him, maybe he could even learn some new fighting moves!

 

He began working on fixing May’s toaster to keep his hands busy as he watched the different fights. Fight after fight was shown- they were being watched out of order, but he could place the year easily by seeing what suit was being worn in the schematics shown on the side. He watched carefully when the familiar sight of the Stark Expo appeared on screen, with his mentor battling the Hammer drones. He couldn’t stop his excitement from coming up when he saw the kid in the iron man mask in the video.

 

_“Nice work kid.”_

 

He smiled at the praise- even though it was from a long time ago, and even though he knew Tony wasn’t aware it was him- hell, Tony probably didn’t even remember that interaction- but Peter would never forget the first time they met.

 

The clips continued- some were taking down terrorists, others were H.Y.D.R.A, and some he had literally no clue what they were even fighting, but it was pretty cool.

 

But when the next one came on, he was more than confused.

 

The only people in the video were Steve, Tony, and… the Winter Soldier. There also was someone talking, to the three.

 

Peter knew that something had happened between Steve and Mr. Stark, and he knew it had something to do with the Winter Soldier. And he figured he shouldn’t watch this clip. He _knew_ this, but it didn’t stop him.

 

———————————————————————————

 

Steve was grateful to have a break for the weekend. Stark had been miserably holed in his lab all week about something, which meant that they had been picking up his slack on the missions when he was absent. They wanted to call in Spider-Man for backup, but purposely asking for a vigilante’s help against something directly asked of them (like wiping out H.Y.D.R.A) was against the accords, so it was great when Tony finally seemed to get out of his head, and back to work.

 

The meeting had honestly been a little odd, since somehow Spider-Man had contacted them during it and asked if they needed help- and since Stark himself wasn’t aware of the new mission until he was told by Steve, it was questionable as to how the arachnid had known _and_ contacted them to see if his help was needed.

 

He decided to brush it off, but it still lingered in the back of his mind. He understood the need to lie for the greater good (he wasn’t going to bring up all the enlistment forms he submitted), but he didn’t feel quite right about it either.

 

Of course, most of the time they spent with Spider-Man was mostly just relaxed, but there would still be those awkward times when they were talking casually about their personal lives and suddenly Spidey would stop talking as much, and everyone was reminded that they could never be sure if they really knew him.

 

Even though they weren’t officially teammates, they still worked together and needed to trust each other as well. But with Spider-Man refusing to trust them with his identity was making it confusing to know just how much they could trust him as well.

 

But Steve willingly buried these feelings to prove himself in trusting Tony. He knew that Stark would defend Spider-Man closely, and since he was the only one who knew who Spider-Man really was, he was trying to accept the billionaire’s judgement in hopes that it would go some way into healing the bridge between them a little more.

 

The remaining Avengers were now eating lunch together, talking about different subjects, when Steve decided to bring up the strangeness around Spider-Man at today’s meeting. Sam and Wanda were quick to join in and mention how they thought it was odd, but neither attempted to dig farther into the subject and when Rhodey changed topics, they ventured on to that conversation instead.

 

He was aware the quick change in topics was out of respect for Spider-Man, but he couldn’t help but question why everyone else seemed so relatively calm about his hidden identity.

 

“Tony gave me some upgrades I want to test out after lunch,” he heard Rhodey say as he tuned back into the conversation.

 

“I’d be up for that,” Sam responded. “He apparently upgraded my wings to go faster, so how about a race?”

 

“You’re on.”

 

Wanda turned to Steve. “I wanted to learn a bit more of proper hand-to-hand combat, and since Nat’s not here- you up for it?”

 

“That sounds good to me,” Steve agreed.

 

“Oh, I left the gloves Tony gave me in his lab, they needed to be fixed so I’d stop using my powers accidentally- can you get them for me while I finish eating?”

 

“I would, but I doubt Stark would leave his lab unlocked.”

 

“And Pepper won’t be here until later,” Rhodey added. “But I can go grab them for you since I have access.”

 

“Yeah, and his intern is probably there though, so just don’t freak him out,” Sam said through a mouthful.

 

“His intern?” Rhodey asked in surprise.

 

“Yeah,” Wanda chimed in. “Stark has this intern that’s always in his lab, he works on a lot of our stuff- weapons, and what-not. I think he works on Spider-Man’s tech too, he always seems to be mixing web-fluid whenever I go. He’s apparently super-smart.”

 

“I didn’t think Tony _had_ any interns.”

 

“Hmmm, well, I think it’s just the one, he’s still in school though, so I think he’s Tony’s ‘special case’ or something.”

 

Rhodey seemed strangely uncomfortable after he heard this information, and said something about how he actually had somewhere he needed to be, and quickly left, resulting in the original idea of Steve retrieving the gloves being brought back.

 

———————————————————————————

  
The elevator opened, allowing him to step onto Tony’s personal floor. It felt wrong to be there knowing that Stark wasn’t present, but Sam had promised him that it would be fine since he was only going to retrieve some needed gear.

 

When he came to the lab, he debated just going in, but upon turning the doorknob he remembered that he didn’t have access or the passcode, so he knocked. His super-hearing picked up on a chain of noises that sounded like someone falling over, resulting in various other items falling to the ground- apparently, a lot of them were glass- when he finally heard footsteps coming in the direction of the door, until it finally opened, revealing a young boy in his teens, with brown eyes and hair, looking quite shocked to see Captain America before him.

 

Steve decided to go with the most stereotypical version of himself that the public seemed to know.

 

“Hello there son, I just need to pick u-“

 

“Don’t call me son,” the boy snapped. “What do you need me to get you?”

 

Trying to hide his surprise at this reaction, he used a bit more of a firm voice as he spoke next.

 

“If you let me in, I’d be happy to get what I need myself.”

 

The intern glared at him- if looks could kill, Steve would definitely be dead right now. It was a little strange to be intimidated by a kid who was only staring at him, not even holding any advanced Stark weapons or anything.

 

It would probably be best if any high-tech glasses that could shoot missiles or something were kept away from the kid for the time being, since giving him the actual power to kill with a look would be a pretty bad idea, though Steve was pretty sure the only person with that kind of advanced tech right now was Stark…

 

The intern still held the door tightly, as if his own hard-willingness would be able to stop Steve’s super-strength incase he tried coming in.

 

“Sorry,” he said, sounding anything _but sorry_. “Only people Mr. Stark trusts are allowed in his lab.”

 

Steve was getting pretty uncomfortable the longer this conversation went on- and frustrated that this kid was acting like he wanted to fight him (but he decided to chalk that up to having a bad day).

 

“Son, I’m not sure if Tony gave you direct orders to keep everyone out of the lab, but he usually always let us in to collect our stuff.”

 

“Well, he’s not here right now, so I can just give you whatever you need instead of having this pointless conversation with someone like you.”

 

Steve nodded slowly, not wanting to spend any more time arguing with this child. “I’m here for Wanda’s fighting gloves.”

 

The boy shut the door and reopened it moments later to hand over the gloves, only to close the door again with a deadly glare and absence of words.

 

———————————————————————————

 

As Steve walked into the gym, he threw the gloves to Wanda, who thanked him.

 

“You could’ve given me a little warning next time though,” Steve stated.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“About that intern- I’m a super-solider, and even _I_ was afraid of him.”

 

“You- wait, maybe it was a different intern? The one that’s usually there is only in high school,” the witch explained.

 

“Yeah, that’s the one that answered- he looked like, less than half my size, but he was terrifying.”

 

“Really?” Wanda asked doubtfully. “He’s always really nice to me…”

 

“Maybe I just caught him on a bad day?’

 

“Yeah, probably. You ready to start now?”

 

———————————————————————————

 

When the three Avengers returned from their mission they were greeted by the others, with Steve immediately ushering them into their meeting room where they would have a discussion over any information found and retrieved from the mission.

 

After the meeting was done, Rhodey went up to the returned billionaire.

 

“Tony, I need to ask you something, and you better not lie about it- cause’ if you are, I’ll make sure I find out the truth,” Rhodey warned.

 

“Yeah, sure, shoot,” Tony responded absently.

 

Rhodey waited until everyone else left the room, then made his way over to the door and closed it before turning back towards his friend in seriousness.

 

“How old is Spider-Man?”

 

Tony sat up straight and looked Rhodey in the eyes.

 

“What?”

 

“How old is he Tony?”

 

“I’d love to answer that- really I would- but I made a promise to keep his-“

 

“I know- look, just… please don’t tell me he’s in high school…”

 

It was hard to read the expression on his friends face, but the billionaire was surprisingly calm as he leaned back in his seat, looking similar to how he was around the press and reporters.

 

“Why exactly are you asking this?”

 

“I just need to know you didn’t bring in a kid who would be pretty much incapable of saying ‘no’ to a freakin Avenger.”

 

“What exactly brought you to the idea that Spider- _Man_ \- emphasis on the _man_ \- is some high-schooler?”

 

“Tony, I don’t need evidence that he’s clearly a _kid_.”

 

“He is on the young side- I’ll give you that.”

 

Rhodey crossed his arms. This was going nowhere.

 

“Yeah, you told me that three months ago.”

 

“Then you already know he’s young- what’s the deal?”

 

“Just tell me he’s not a minor.”

 

“He’s not.”

 

“He isn’t your intern then?”

 

This surprisingly stopped Tony for a moment.

 

“You met my intern?”

 

“No, Wanda told me about him. I always suspected that Spider-Man was young, but she told me you’re intern was in _high-school_ Tony, and… I just got the feeling that this kid that you decided to take in as your intern, might be something more than just an intern… I didn’t go talk to him, because I didn’t want to be right- and if I _was_ right, I thought he should be the one to say when we meet.”

 

Tony looked to the side, to the ground- literally anywhere but his friend's eyes- until he finally looked the colonel directly in the eyes.

 

“My intern isn’t Spider-Man, he’s an incredibly smart kid that I wanted to give an opportunity of a lifetime to. Neither of them are connected.”

 

“Ok.”

 

The conversation was over.

 

Rhodey may have said ‘ok’, but he didn’t believe Tony- not because he didn’t trust him- but _because_ Tony was his best friend, and he knew when he was lying.

 

———————————————————————————

 

When Tony entered the lab, he was half-expecting Peter to have left to watch tv, or talk to Ned in his room, but he was still hard at work at his desk, the mountain of granola bars already devoured (he would have to remember to make upgraded bars for Peter’s metabolism since it seemed to be stronger than Steve’s).

 

He had expected the kid to at least acknowledge his entrance to the lab, but Peter kept his eyes glued to the (toaster?) he was working on.

 

“Hey, Pete.”

 

The kid looked up in surprise at the billionaire’s entrance.

 

“Mr. Stark! I didn’t know you were back. How’d it go?”

 

“Pretty good, it was easy but we didn’t get much intel. So it was overall dull. How were things here?”

 

Peter stiffened at this question but forced a smile. “Great. I just kinda stayed here and did… stuff.”

 

“Mmhm, sure. I’m just not going to ask why you look so guilty. So the others are cooking downstairs, not sure what exactly, but it’s free food, so you wanna go join them? We can come up here again after.”

 

“Oh, um, I’m actually not really hungry, so I can just stay here.”

 

“Alright, I know you’re literally always hungry, so that’s a lie, but if you don’t want to go down, I’ll just bring you up some when I go-“

 

“NO!”

 

Tony tried to grasp the kid’s abrupt behaviour- he looked genuinely scared of something.

 

“Kid, is everything ok?”

 

“Ye-yeah, sorry. Just- you stay here, I’ll go get the food, ok?”

 

“Ok, you’re obviously not fine, you gotta talk to me-“

 

“I don’t feel like it-“

 

“Too bad, you’ve been putting off telling me something, and now it’s just gotten worse.” Tony walked over to where Peter was sitting and kneeled down so he would be at eye level with him.

 

“Com’on Peter.”

 

The silence seemed to wain on forever until Peter finally spoke, his eyes on the ground.

 

“I know what happened in Siberia. I saw it all. Friday showed me.”

 

Tony felt so many thoughts run through his mind- _how did he see it? Why was he looking for it? Did he see anything else?-_

 

But his immediate concern was the trebling kid in front of him, obviously distressed.

 

“Shit. Sorry kid.”

 

“Why did you go alone?” He asked is a hoarse whisper.

 

“I promised I wouldn’t bring anyone- and I trusted Steve- I still do, to some extent. Rhodey was hurt, and Vision was unreliable at that moment. I didn’t have anyone else to bring-“

 

“You had me!”

 

“You were- are- just a kid! I had just met you, and I already put you in too much danger already, I couldn’t put you in even more.”

 

“But you were willing to put yourself in that amount of danger, alone?”

 

“I had no reason to not trust him.”

 

“You almost _died._ ”

 

Tony sighed and got up from the ground. “Peter, I’m fine, and the others are fine too- pretty much anyway- but whatever isn’t fine, we’re working on mending it as a team.”

 

Peter didn’t look up from the floor, and remained silent and strangely still considering he was almost always in constant motion.

 

“I don’t want you to be in the same room as him…” Peter finally spoke up.

 

“Pete…”

 

“How are you just ‘ok’ like this all of a sudden? You could’ve _died_ \- you- you might not even be here right now if he had hit you even just a little harder!”

 

Peter looked up at Tony, and it pained him to see tears forming in the kid’s eyes.

 

“Peter, Cap made some wrong choices, but so did I. But we couldn’t let it come in the way of the greater good, that’s why he’s back with us- why they all are. And I-I was angry, and I still am, that Steve never told me about my parents the moment he found out how they died, and who killed them. I’m mad that he didn’t try to work through the accords to change them to more agreeable standards the first time- and yeah, I’m mad that he ate the last of the leftover pizza that I wanted. But there’s plenty for him to be mad at me about too. But we just have to move forward and work as a team, ok?”

 

Peter nodded with hesitation. “I just don’t… I don’t want to leave you alone with him. And I don’t really want to see him again tonight.”

 

“Fair enough. I’ll call Happy and get him to pick something up, Pep will be here soon too, it’s about time you two met.”

 

“You’re going to introduce me to Ms. Potts? Wait, am I ruining your plans tonight? Cuz I can leave-“

 

“I was planning to spend tonight with you anyways kid, so whatever you want to do tonight, I’m game.”

 

“Thank you, Mr. Stark."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you sososo much for reading and for all your support through comments and kudos!! they motivate me to continue!!!
> 
> hope you all have a great day/night, and are able to see Far From Home soon!!!
> 
> ok, sidenote: I have a chapter half-written out thatI actually like, but I wrote it before I saw FFH, and while I wanted to keep things close to cannon, the chapter involves Peter being a photographer for the Daily Bugle like he is in the comics. Anyway I was just wondering if I should still finish it, or if you would prefer me to change it to be more in line with cannon? I'm sorta leaning towards changing it, since I really like to stick more closely to cannon, but idk- what do you guys think?


	4. let's tell each other a secret about ourselves, i'll go first- i, hate you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some Steve and Spidey bonding, but they're kinda ooc- sorry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all your positive support over these past few chapters!! I know they've been a bit more negative from my usual stuff, but my writing tends to reflect how I'm feeling, and I've been going through a lot of shit since school break started, but I'll try to write some happier stuff!
> 
> Anywaysss, I really hope you enjoy this chapter, thanks for reading!
> 
> (btw, I'm super sorry Pepper isn't in this- I do plan on putting her in, but it just wasn't working with this chapter)

After what happened last night, Tony wasn’t sure what to expect Peter to be like since he had never really dealt with the kid acting like this before. He had introduced him to Pepper, and even though Peter had been ecstatic to meet her, he still lacked his usual chipper attitude. They hadn’t been getting much done in the lab after dinner, so Tony made sure he did his homework and then sent him to bed. In retrospect, he probably should’ve spent more time with him, but he was having a hard time figuring out what to do, and Peter seemed like he needed rest more than anything.

 

Now he was waiting in the kitchen the next mourning, waiting for Peter to make his entrance- which he was probably way too early for anyway, since it was seven-thirty, and he knew it wasn’t likely that a teen would be up before nine on a weekend.

 

He sipped his coffee as he realized that seven-thirty was considered an ungodly hour of the mourning to be awake even for _himself_ , but he had just wanted to be sure he was there when Peter did come, and after regretting and attempting to justify his decision to send the kid to bed early, he was going to do everything to make sure he was ok.

 

Apparently, though, he didn’t need to worry about it that much, sice Peter seemed nearly back to normal when he finally came in (at ten-forty-seven).

 

“Hey, Mr. Stark!” He greeted cheerfully as he grabbed the cherry pop tarts and threw seven into the micro-wave, while Tony tried to hide his initial disgust at the kid’s dietary habits.

 

“Hi, Pete- how’re you doing today?” Tony attempted to ask nonchalantly as he avoided looking at Peter, not wanting to see if the kid crumpled a little as he said he was _‘great’_.

 

“I-I’m fine Mr. Stark- really. I’m sorry about last night, I just- I know I shouldn’t have done that, I’m sorry.”

 

“You don’t need to apologize for it,” Tony sighed. “Just don’t do that again without my permission, please.” He unwillingly noticed how Peter sagged a little as he spoke. “I’m the one who should be apologizing to you kid, I should’ve never left those files somewhere you could find them. But at least this way you helped me find a security breach, so thanks.” He had read somewhere that ending something with a compliment when you’re child thought you were angry helped things go smoother, so he thought maybe it would help (uhhhh, no, he’s not reading parenting books- he doesn’t even have a kid… he just came across that article and decide to read it since it seemed interesting).

 

It more or less seemed to work, since Peter seemed less saggy as he retrieved his pop tarts and started to chat excitedly with Tony about different projects he had thought of. When Tony asked if he wanted to go train with the other Avengers though, he realized Peter was putting on more of an act than he originally thought, but ultimately the teen agreed- not wanting to show that he was still bothered- but the billionaire did notice as Peter edged a little closer to him in protectiveness.

 

Tony was waiting by the elevator for Peter to get suited up, considering what to do. On one hand, he really just wanted to have Peter all to himself in the labs, and forget about the others for the weekend- but on the other hand, he knew that it would be best to clear any uncomfortable air with the Avengers before it got any worse. Peter came out of his room, suited up but with his mask still in his hands as he stared down at it with a firm but unreadable expression that Tony had become familiar enough with to know it was anxiety.

 

He reached out and threw his arm over the boy’s shoulder, hoping to calm him down a bit.

 

“You don’t have to be with them if you don’t feel like it,” Tony finally voiced, but Peter shook his head.

 

“I wanna go say hi to them,” he spoke quietly.

 

Tony nodded and released the kid from his grasp as he stepped in the elevator, Peter right behind him.

 

Not much was said in the ride down to the Avenger’s floor as Peter silently slipped his mask on. Watching him do this reminded Tony of what Rhodey had said… he understood what had been said about Peter being too young, and he even agreed with it to a point- the point being that Peter had made it clear he would be doing this with or without him- and since there was no way to convince him to be a normal teen, he at least could try to convince him to stay safe.

 

But that wasn’t the thing that was bothering him- it was that Rhodey had figured it out- that he had figured out not only Peter’s age, but he also found out that Peter was his intern- and his best friend had never even been in the same room as Peter before…

 

All it would take was some chance meeting, and Rhodey would know who he was. And even though Tony trusted him with much more than his own life, he still wasn’t comfortable with anyone knowing who Spider-Man was. But thankfully Rhodey had already decided to avoid any further knowledge of his ‘intern’ out of respect for the guy, but the subject felt so uncontrollable, it was hard to know what might happen next…

 

The elevator doors opened, allowing them on the Avengers floor.

 

Tony stepped out first and tried to ignore the feeling of panic rising from the kid following closely behind him. He wanted to hold Peter a little to calm him down, but he felt too self-conscious to do something like that when the others could see it- after all, even though they had all been close to one another before, none of them had seen him act that way with anyone (yes, he was aware he treated Peter differently- he just didn’t want to admit it) and if Rhodey had picked up on it, it was only a matter of time before the others did too (he was pretty sure Nat noticed already but hadn’t said anything).

 

The two entered the kitchen which was half-full of Avengers, making Tony painfully aware that it would seem strange that the two came in together when Spider-Man had only ever made his entrances via windows.

 

Vision, Wanda, and Rhodey were at the table as Sam was passing out coffee, and explaining some first aid techniques that could be useful in battle when the others noticed their arrival.

 

“Spider-Man!” Sam greeted. “What’re you doing here? I thought it was too early for an appearance by you.”

 

“It’s like, eleven Sam- I woke up _hours_ ago,” Peter responded, easily falling into his alter persona.

 

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure he only woke up fifteen minutes ago,” Tony added in naturally.

 

“Th-that’s not true Mr. Stark! I wouldn’t have been able to travel to the compound that fast…”

 

_Rigghhhhhhht_. Tony forgot that technically, _Spider-Man_ hadn’t stayed the night since _Spider-Man_ didn’t have a room here. Even when he was consciously thinking about trying to make things seem normal, he was still forgetting the most obvious stuff of having a secret identity. The hardest part of Peter hanging out with the Avengers was the fact that Tony saw first hand the distinction between Spider-Man and Peter Parker, and had to treat them as separate people as well.

 

“It’s good to see you Spider-Man,” Vision greeted, blissfully unaware of Tony’s current inner struggles. “We were all about to go train- Sam was intending on instructing us in different safety measures today.”

 

Peter glanced at Tony as if he was unsure that he could accept, and was asking permission, and the billionaire inwardly groaned. He was starting to realize why Rhodey had picked up on it all so soon. He tried not to look in his friend’s direction as he gave a short nod to the spider, hoping that no one had picked up on it- but after a slight look in the colonel’s direction, he saw the knowing stare that Rhodey was giving the two, while still not completely sure if it was true.

 

“Sure, I’d be happy to join,” Peter said freely, albeit a little stiff, but Sam didn’t notice as he motioned for the spider to take a seat as he continued to explain the different procedures.

 

The billionaire had stayed in the room although he hadn’t been ‘officially’ invited to- just in case Peter ended up needing him- but now was realizing that he was probably over-concerned, and was considering if he should announce his departure from the room, or just slip away unnoticed, when Steve came in.

 

“Sorry to interrupt the instructions Sam, but another base just came up on our radar, and we’ve been assigned to go in and clear it.”

 

Tony tried to ignore the way the kid became still at the sound of the super-soldier's voice but was surprised when the kid got up from his seat and walked over to Tony, putting himself between the two men- which Steve mistakingly took for Spider-Man coming over to say hello.

 

“It’s good to see you here Spidey,” the super-soldier acknowledged with a smile.

 

“Yeah… uh, you too.”

 

_So much for acting casual_. Tony thought, as he placed a hand on the kid’s shoulder, and pulled him towards himself a little- he knew Peter would never purposely attack a hero, but he also knew the kid’s _attack-first, make-joke, question-later_ method of fighting, and didn’t want to see it on display if he decided to snap at Cap.

 

“Let’s call a meeting then,” Tony decided. “We’re mostly all here other than Nat-“

 

“She’s visiting Clint,” Sam informed.

 

“-Perfect, then we’re all here, let’s start.”

 

“Shouldn’t he leave for this?” Steve gestured at Spider-Man who was still at Tony’s side. “It is confidential information- as much as I’d like him to come along- I don’t think the accords will let him.”

 

“I’m not leaving,” Spider-Man said firmly, surprising everyone.

 

“Kid, come on, it’ll be quick- you can wait outside.” But Peter still shook his head no.

 

Steve was awkwardly watching the two try and have a silent conversation and finally gave up. “Alright Spidey, you can stay, I doubt they have any way of finding out if we said this in front of you, and I’m pretty sure all most of the general public knows what we do about Hydra at this point.”

 

Steve walked to the centre of the room so he could be in better sight of everyone as he explained what was needed from the mission, and where it was- all that boring stuff- which ended in Vision, and Rhodey volunteering to go, and they quickly left, leaving Sam, Steve, Wanda, Tony, and Spider-Man together…

 

“So I guess Vis and Rhodes will miss out on the safety training, but the rest of us can still go,” Sam suggested.

 

Tony wanted to make up some excuse and cart the kid off to be in the lab with him for the rest of the day, but there wasn’t really a way out now, as the others agreed to this plan, and headed outside to where Sam had set everything up.

 

———————————————————————————

 

“Alright,” Sam started. “So I’ve split you up into teams of two: Tony, Wanda, you’re together, and Steve and Spidey, you’re a team, got it?”

 

Steve saw that Sam was using the opportunity to help the team bond- Tony and Wanda still weren’t that close, and admittedly, Steve hadn’t spent much time with the wall-crawler. Once again Steve was impressed with how Sam managed to take charge and figure out a way to improve what would be a normal training session.

 

The soldier glanced over at the spider and gave him a smile, but was unnerved when he just stared back (did his eyes narrow a bit?) without saying a word. Once again, he wished Spider-Man didn’t insist on wearing a mask- if only so he wasn’t constantly having to guess what the man was thinking.

 

“Couldn’t I work with Mr. Stark?” Spider-Man asked suddenly, as Steve tried not to feel hurt by it. As far as he knew, Spider-Man didn’t even like the billionaire all that much- even though they had been on the same side with the accords, and Tony had been the one to recruit him- they seemed to talk the least out of all the Avengers, and Spider-Man even refused to call Tony by his first name, which was something even Steve had with the vigilante. Not to mention that Spider-Man had rejected Tony’s offer to be in the Avengers, so he wasn’t exactly sure of there was bad blood between them.

 

Which is why it hurt when he requested to be put with Tony rather than himself- hell, it would’ve hurt much less if he asked to be with Wanda, since she, Nat, and Clint seemed to be the people Spider-Man was closest with.

 

Sam hardly looked up from his phone where he had started projecting images for instructions when Spider-Man asked this.

 

“Nah, you and Steve are both super-strong, so it’ll work best with those pairings,” he explained.

 

Tony put a protective hand on Spider-Man’s shoulder as if he was trying to claim him- it was obvious something had happened between them.

 

“But won’t it be ok for now if we just started out with each other?” The web-slinger asked.

 

Sam huffed a little and rolled his eyes. “Alright, we can switch up the teams I guess. But the better matches would be Wanda and Spidey- Spidey you gotta turn off the strength in you’re suit though-“

 

“Whatd'ya mean ‘turn off’ my strength-“

 

“-And Tony and Steve-“ Sam continued. “Tony’s suit has enough strength, so it’ll still work. If that's ok with everyo-“

 

“No, wait! We can keep the original teams actually, never mind…” Spider-Man abruptly changed again.

 

Sam sighed loudly. “Ok, we keep the original teams then- can we just start already?”

 

Steve tried again to hide his surprise and slight hurt and saw Wanda sporting the same expression. Spider-Man was behaving strangely after being gone a week, so the super-soldier decided to brush it off as just a bad day, and try to be welcoming to the fellow hero.

 

“Hey Spidey,” he greeted. “It’ll be nice to be working with you again.”

 

“Yeah, you too, _Captain_ …”

 

Was there an edge in his voice?

 

“Hey, I know Tony and Wanda can seem like more fun, but this’ll be the fun team, I promise.”

 

“And how often do you keep your promises?”

 

“As often as I can.”

 

Spider-Man just hummed a little and turned away- it was really frustrating to keep trying to guess if he was just using playful banter, or if he was actually angry with him- and the more time Steve was spending with the arachnid, the more he was thinking it was the latter option. And he needed to figure out why.

 

———————————————————————————

 

The training didn’t go exactly the way Steve had hoped- the spider would answer his questions, but his responses would be short and devoid of very much information, and he was definitely sure that something was now wrong. He had wanted to confront the man about it, but he wasn’t sure if that was the best way to go about the situation. Either way, he didn’t like to leave a problem unsolved, and if something had happened, he wanted to help. So when he noticed Spider-Man alone in the kitchen, he saw his chance.

 

The man looked up from what he was cooking at the stove as Steve approached. He was wearing an apron over his suit, but other than that, he was still completely covered by the red and blue fabric, causing the solider to admire his dedication to wear the suit consistently- and also making him wonder if it was ever weird to be the only one in-costume (uniform?) all the time. Another part if Steve thought about how weird it would be to see him without the mask since Spider-Man’s costume was just how he saw him now, and sometimes questioned if the mask really _was_ his face (he got that one at three am when Bucky sent him a conspiracy video about Spider-Man, that apparently the princess of Wakanda had shown him).

 

Steve pushed those thoughts away and focused again on what the man was currently doing.

 

“You’re making pancakes?” Steve stated more than asked as he approached the man.

 

“Oh- uh, hey Cap… yeah, I’m just-” he gestured towards the pan pointedly. “Yeah…”

 

“They look great. Any special occasion?”

 

“No-Nah, not really, I just wanted to thank Sam for the lessons, and he seems to like em’, sooo.”

 

“That was very generous of you,” Steve nodded, and then they fell into a tense silence.

 

He cleared his throat before starting up again.

 

“Actually Spider-Man, I was wondering if I could ask you something.”

 

“Um, I guess.”

 

He was acting like some moody teenager, which made Steve laugh on the inside as he thought about how it reminded him how he acted whenever Bucky had tried to stop him from doing something stupid but justified.

 

“I’m just getting the feeling that something has you upset, and I feel like that something is to do with me…”

 

Spider-Man didn’t deny this, so he assumed he had been correct.

 

“I need you to tell me what I did so I can fix it.”

 

Spider-Man turned away a little and crossed his arms.

 

“Spider-Man?”

 

The man turned and faced the solider.

 

“Look, I’m really sorry, ok? I just- I saw something, and you already made up for it, so it's fine, and I know you had your reasons too, but it just- it was hard to see, and I just don’t know what to do cuz’ Mr. Stark says it’s fine, and you say it’s fine, and like, I know this is all done with, but I just- I just _don’t know_.”

 

Steve had been trying to follow all this- he really was, but he had nothing but a vague idea of what the vigilante was talking about.

 

“What did you see?” He asked softly, already nearly aware of the answer.

 

“Just- I saw… I saw Siberia…” Spider-Man admitted, hanging his head in guilt. “Mr. Stark didn’t know I found a way to access it, so it’s not his fault- but… I still- I saw it.”

 

“I’m sorry,” Steve said honestly.

 

“You hurt him…” Spider-Man said, a surprising amount of pain in his voice. “And I know I don’t know the full story, but I just- I couldn’t stand to see him hurt like that.”

 

“I understand,” the soldier said truthfully. “I’m not really sure what I can say to help.”

 

Spider-Man turned his focus back on the sizzling pan in front of him, clearly with anger still inside him.

 

He looked back up after a minute.

 

“Neither do I. But I think this is the part where we just try to move forward, right?”

 

“Unless you want to talk about it more?”

 

“I don’t really know what else to say…”

 

There was quiet for another moment until the arachnid broke it.

 

“I did something once,” he said suddenly, his voice almost emotionless, but there was still a hint of anger- or maybe sadness- in it. Steve waited for the next bit of information, which seemed to come in-between time breaks that lasted an infinity.

 

“I did something really awful,” his voice broke at the end.

 

“I’m sure it wasn’t-“

 

“Have you ever tried to get revenge?” Spider-Man asked in an almost-whisper, his voice hoarse. “Because I have. Once. I couldn’t do it in the end though. Not because I had self-control, but because I would’ve failed the person I was doing it for.”

 

Steve was in a state of mute shock after what was just said. He hadn’t expected the man to open up so suddenly like that.

 

“I know what you did was also to help someone important to you, and the thing is, Mr. Stark is someone really important to me. I just didn’t want to see someone I… someone who’s important to me get hurt…” the word ‘again’ was left out, but Steve knew that it was there at the end of the sentence.

 

———————————————————————————

 

“Here,” a voice from above called. Steve didn’t need to look up to know that the voice belonged to Spider-Man. He looked up just to see a bottle of blue liquid being thrown towards him and caught it.

 

“Um, thanks… what is this exactly?”

 

“I just- I wanted to say sorry or something for being so… um, well, y’ know…” The man gestured clumsily. “So like, that’s for you…”

 

“You don’t need to be sorry Spidey, but I do appreciate it, thank you.”

 

“Yeah, uh, no prob…”

 

It was silent a moment before Steve dared to speak first.

 

“So, what is it exactly? Some sort of energy drink?” He asked, shaking the bottle slightly.

 

“I guess in a way? It’s just some anti-freeze, but y’ know, I just put it in a nicer looking bottle. I’m not exactly sure if it’ll work, but the stuff works on cars, so I figured it’ll help you if you ever decide to jump in a block of ice again- or at least it might help you stay warm in the winter- I haven’t actually tried it out in the cold yet, but I’m assuming it could work.”

 

Steve chuckled a bit and smiled up at the spider.

 

“I’ll keep it in mind next time I come up against any glaciers,” he joked.

 

“Well, we don’t want you going all frozen on us again, right?”

 

“I’m sure the Avengers could make it without me.”

 

“Right, but who would help the kids understand their _‘changing bodies’_?”

 

Steve froze at that.

 

“What did you just say?”

 

“Ummm, well, I bet you’re a great role model for kids and all, I’m sure there’s a lot of people who look up to you, and you probably help a lot of the general public understand the changing circumstances, and the way the body of the earth is constantly changing too because of our actions, and like, looking back at your time period when you didn’t have that many global issues- well I mean, you were in the wars- but it just really, I just think you help a lot of people realize that. About the uh, changing body of the earth.” Spider-Man clarified.

 

“Huh, I never thought I affected people like that,” Steve admitted honestly- he’d have to offer to do some videos on the awareness of the earth’s state sometime- he might be able to make a difference if he already made people think of it.

 

“Yeah, totally,” Spidey affirmed. “So just, don’t go diving in any more ice…”

 

“You got it,” Steve said holding up the bottle again with a smile (and the relief that Spider-Man did not, in fact, know about his PSA’s).

 

———————————————————————————

 

(Peter obviously knew about the PSA’s)

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for all your comments and kudos! They're really motivating!!
> 
> <333333


	5. "gOOD CREDIT? BAD CREDIT? NO CREDIT? NO PROBLEM- U DEAD? FUCK IT- GHOST CREDIT!"  "im gonna get a subAru!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The underlying theme of sleep-deprivation is because I'm incredibly sleep-deprived rn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, first off, let me say I'm so super sorry for missing a week- I've been volunteering a lot this summer, so it's been really busy, and I'm basically just living off of Mountain Dew at this point...
> 
> And now I'm sick, for idk how long, so the good news is that I have time to write for a few days! The bad news is that I'm sick, and this really sucks.
> 
> aNYWAYS!!! DID U GUYS SEE THE NEXT SPIDEY FILM IS GONNA BE CALLED 'HOME SWEET HOME'?!!!!!! I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS LIKE I JUST HOPE OUR BOI FINDS HAPPINESS THAT ISN'T CRUELLY RIPPED FROM HIM
> 
> Thank u so much for reading btw, I hope u enjoy!!!

 

Peter was smarter than this.

 

But you can only be so good at school without losing a part of yourself in the process- and he had really expended himself in studying over the past week- which is why he had done something so incredibly stupid right now.

 

He was at the compound Friday after school, and even though he was supposed to be in the lab with his mentor, Mr. Stark had told him to rest instead, and actually locked him out of the lab, forcing Peter to go to his room and sleep.

 

But sleep doesn’t come all that easy after forcing yourself to stay awake for the past week. Some might say the opposite, but that, unfortunately, wasn’t the case for Peter, so after thirty minutes of tossing and turning, and wanting to do anything but sleep, he got out of his bed, deciding to go get some water, and maybe something to eat.

 

As he got up, F.R.I.D.A.Y threatened to alert Mr. Stark, but after calming her and explaining that he was only getting water, and she let him go.

 

Peter started his walk there normally- he went to Stark’s kitchen (he was on the billionaire’s private floor, rather than the Avengers floor), and got some water. Unfortunately, though, they were all out of cherry pop tarts, which was pretty much a deal-breaker for Peter right now (I’m sorry, but have you ever come home from school with hardly any sleep just to find your favourite food gone??? It’s not a great experience).

 

Luckily, he remembered that there was an unopened box in the Avengers kitchen.

 

Unluckily, he forgot that it was the _Avengers_ kitchen.

 

At this point, he was so fucking tired he just wanted to grab any sort of food and pretend to be satisfied, but he was also so fucking tired of pretending to be ok, and pretending to be ok with no Pop-Tarts would definitely send him over the breaking point, so he just made his way to the elevator, and went down to the Avengers level.

 

He figured the Avengers hadn’t seen him in his pajamas before, but the would probably notice how tired he was, and leave him alone (hopefully), so he didn’t give much thought to the fact that they hadn’t actually seen _him_ before- only Wanda, Sam, and Steve had actually met him as Peter before- and none of them knew he was a fellow hero.

 

The elevator doors opened to reveal an empty floor. Part of him was glad since he didn’t really want any more human interaction, but another part of him was slightly disappointed since the Avengers always cheered him up a bit.

 

Peter had started to frequently walk on the ceilings after gaining his powers- he was pretty much always up there- and now it just seemed normal to him. So he had become what you might consider vertically challenged. Sometimes he honestly forgot when he was standing on the ceiling, or when he was on the ground, and the difference became so much harder to tell when he was sleep-deprived.

 

Hence why he didn’t exactly notice when he was on the ceiling right now.

 

He made his way over to the kitchen, only going in the wrong direction more than a few times since the layout seemed much different when you're on the wrong side of gravity so that understandably made a simple task tedious and frustrating as a sleep-deprived personage. When the kitchen finally came in sight, the relief that overflowed in his veins fuelled his body to move towards the room in search of the Pop-Tarts he so desperately wanted.

 

The fridge was currently floating a couple of feet off the ground (ceiling), and actually seemed to be upside down, which was confusing, but he chalked it all up to science (he was fucking smart, so he was confident that this was just science) and used his webs to open one of the cupboards, but since he was so very tired and very confused, he had to open up a majority of them before he found the desired product.

 

Admittedly giving up, he decided to eat them cold and sat down on the floor (ceiling) to enjoy them.

 

He was on his seventh and was just managing to wake up a bit when suddenly he heard someone approaching. He quickly glanced down to see if he looked slightly presentable despite being in his pajamas… he didn’t normally wear them in front of the others, but something was bothering him since he couldn’t remember really ever wearing normal clothes with them either… didn't he like, usually dress up? He usually wore a suit, right? How did he always wear a suit, those were like, super uncomfortable and kinda expensive, also the only one he had was Ben’s old suit, which he had worn last on homecoming night…

 

Shit.

 

_Shitshitshitshit_. _I wear my_ suit _suit. My Spider-suit- oh god someone's coming, whatdoIdowhatdoIdo?_

 

He glanced around desperately, now wide-awake as he realized what a fucking idiot he was. Only he would manage to reveal his identity to the Avengers over something like wanting Pop-Tarts, which made him all the more desperate to hide since he would probably never live this down. He admittedly should’ve just jumped down from, and just played the intern card, but the last thing he wanted to do was embarrass himself, _as himself_ , and act like he blatantly owned the place, going wherever he pleased, stealing food from the _ever-loving Avengers_ while in his pajamas…

 

But the steps were getting closer, and he was sure that if he tried to sneak out on the ceiling, he would be spotted sooner or later, and that wasn’t a chance he felt like taking- especially in his sleep-deprived state.

 

Running purely on impulse and refined sugar, he noticed he was directly above the kitchen table (even though he was on the ceiling, he still had to eat at the table, or Mr. Stark would get mad), which was thankfully covered decently in a tablecloth, which he quickly shot a web at, pulling it up and throwing it over himself, resulting in the immediate relief of being hidden. He forgot the basic fact that despite being covered in a white tablecloth, this did not, in fact, make him invisible, or quiet, as he quickly fastened the cloth to his hands and feet with his webs so that the fabric would stick to his body, hiding his body from any onlookers at any direction, and finally suffering towards a corner in the room. The only thing was, he couldn’t see very well either- not as well as he would’ve liked. The other problem was, whichever-Avenger he had heard walking, had now entered the room- but gladly, the un-problem was that the random Avenger had yet to notice him, so he considered it an unqualified success as he continued to stick in the corner. All he had to do now, was wait for the person to leave, and he was free.

 

———————————————————————————

 

Clint had been relentlessly inviting Scott over to the compound, and he had been declining for too long- either from spending time with Cassie, or helping the Pym’s, or even helping Lewis… but he finally had some free time, and it was a weekday, so his daughter was in school anyway, which was why he had finally been able to come to New York for a visit.

 

Unfortunately, upon his arrival, he received a text from Clint informing him that none of the Avengers were actually at the compound, due to some meeting they were all needed for apparently, and assured him they would be back soon.

 

Scott debated going into the city for a bit but was ultimately tired, so he went into the compound to his room (he wasn’t ‘officially’ an Avenger, but other than announcing it publicly, he was considered one- hence the room and ID card).

 

None of the workers spared a second glance at him as he made his way to the elevator, and though he was tired enough that he appreciated not being bothered, he _had_ been hoping someone would offer him a hand with his bags, or a least a trolly cart or something, but his fate was resigned to hauling up the bags himself.

 

After he had finally finished throwing them in his room, he went over to the kitchen, hoping at least to find some oranges or something and maybe grab a glass of water.

 

He heard a slight shuffling sound but figured it was one of the other floors since no one was on the Avengers floor other than him. As he entered the kitchen, he tried not to feel bothered by the feeling of another presence in the room watching him, and instead took account of the current state of the kitchen…

 

All the cupboards were opened, and looked like someone trifled through them absently, and decided to leave it a mess. Shrugging it off, he walked over to the fridge and opened the door, only for an entire ass box of Pop-Tarts that had been left to dangle precariously on the edge of the fridge to fall on his head.

 

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he mumbled to himself. It wasn’t a bad day, per se, but he was just really tired and annoyed by being showered with toastable treats. Ignoring the fallen snacks, he rummaged through the fridge for oranges or tangerines, but none were found. He spent awhile more looking for something he wanted: orange juice, frozen dumplings, ice cream… but they either didn’t have it or didn’t have the flavour he usually liked, which kinda sucked.

 

He finally decided to turn his attention to the open cupboards…

 

Only they weren’t open anymore. They had all been closed.

 

_I must be losing it, I really should just sleep._ He thought to himself, before opening the first one… until he caught a glimpse of movement in the corner of his eye…

 

He stood incredibly still. Was there an intruder in the compound? Or was he just going insane? (Always a fun game to play!)

 

“Hello?” He asked like your average clueless character in a horror movie.

 

The lights flicked off suddenly. Then back on. Then off again.

 

This is more annoying than frightening.

 

He heard a shuffling sound coming from above him, but looking up, he saw nothing... Did the Avengers normally deal with stuff like this? _Of course, this is just a joke,_ he reasoned.

 

“Alright guys, real funny, you got me for a sec there.”

 

No response. Lights were still out.

 

“You convinced me alright? You can cut this out.”

 

More movement he could only feel, but not see… like when you lose track of a spider in your room…

 

“Um, hey, Stark’s AI? Uh, Wednesday I think?”

 

_“It's F.R.I.D.A.Y- this stands for Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth. How may I help you, Mr. Lang?”_

 

“Sorry Friday... Can you turn the lights on for me? I’m not entirely sure where the switch is.”

 

_“I’m sorry Mr. Lang, but you cannot override the person who made this request.”_

 

“Who made the request? I thought all the Avengers were out…”

 

_“All the Avengers are currently absent from the compound. I am afraid I cannot tell you who issued this order.”_

 

“Ok, no problem,” he said calmly while repeating _don’tfreakoutdon’tfreakoutdon’tfreakout_ over and over in his mind. “That means I’m the only one on this level, right?”

 

_“There is currently another person on this level. But I’m afraid I cannot tell you who.”_

 

“I’m going to die on a floor covered in Pop-Tarts in a kitchen that doesn’t carry anything citrus.”

 

“Ooo.”

 

Scott stopped suddenly at the quiet sound, hardly daring to breathe. “Fri-Friday… did you say something…?”

 

_“No, sir.”_

 

He heard another slight noise, and turned around slowly, hardly daring to look…

 

A ghost was floating in the corner of the room.

 

———————————————————————————

 

Peter had been doing pretty good at not being seen. He had dropped the Pop-Tarts a little carelessly on the edge of the fridge, but whatever, they probably hadn’t hurt whoever-it-was that it had fallen on. He hadn’t quite placed which Avenger it was yet since the voice didn’t sound familiar, but he was guessing he was just too tired to figure it out.

 

He eventually started to forget that someone else was there as he cleaned up the kitchen. They were spending a pretty long time with their head buried in the fridge looking for something, so he just continued to mind his own business.

 

Now ready to leave, he took out his phone and asked Friday to turn out the lights, since it would aid in his escape if the person couldn’t see him. He soon realized, however, that that was probably a dumb-ass idea since it would seem incredibly random that the lights would turn off, so he turned them back on again. It was his third stupid realization that he turned the lights back _on_ which would be even more confusing, so he turned them back off.

 

He was starting to have second doubts about turning them off again, and probably would’ve spent the remainder of the day turning them on and off, but his two functioning brain cells decided to lock the lighting so that wouldn’t happen.

 

Finally ready to make his exit, he started heading out, when he heard the person (who he now knew was Mr. Lang thanks to Friday talking to him, but he didn’t fully register what that meant) say: “I’m going to die on a floor covered in Pop-Tarts in a kitchen that doesn’t carry anything citrus.” And being the sleep-deprived gen Z he was, he unwillingly replied “mood” without thinking.

 

And that really sucked, cuz the next thing he knew, he had apparently taken up the identity of a ghost, and now a grown man was screaming at the top of his lungs as Peter tried to calm him by waving his arms in what he hoped was a calming gesture.

 

It didn’t work, so he was currently being pelted with white dust that was either salt or sugar- it was kinda hard to tell. He decided he really just needed to sleep, and having a crazed man trying to dispel him seemed like a pretty good excuse to leave the room without seeming impolite, so he quietly left while saying “I came here to have a good time, and honestly, I’m just feeling so a-salt-ed right now.” And then cringed internally, and turned back briefly. “Sorry man, that one was kinda old, that’s like someone still saying ‘haters gonna hate’, like shit I get really off my game when I’m tired. But in your eyes, I’m a ghost right?”

 

The question was only met with more screaming and salt.

 

“Then that might be ok, cuz what if I died in the early 2010s? Then my terminology would be old right?- Can you stop throwing salt for a- ok y’ know what? I’m just gonna go…”

 

And with that, he crawled out of the room, into the elevator, and back to his room where he promptly collapsed.

 

———————————————————————————

 

Scott couldn’t sleep after that.

 

He couldn’t _anything_ after that, other than watch conspiracy videos with a bag of salt beside him.

 

Then he found it- the video that cleared everything up. It was titled: _“The secret the Avengers don’t want you to know!!!! Are the heroes hiding a REAL LIFE GHOST????”_

 

He had clicked on it, and obviously, he now had answers.

 

———————————————————————————

 

So there were several theories included in the video, all of them based on the same small facts: the mysteriously deleted footage that was reported by one of the employees. Several blurry photos. And someone who mysteriously used the Avengers elevator, only going between Stark’s floor and the Avengers floor (all of these were backed by an ex-security guard).

 

  
One of the theories went like this: _after Steve Rogers was found in the ice, they wanted to try and see if anyone else had survived the same way- and Bucky Barnes returning only fuels the proof that it’s quite possible more than two modern-day ghosts are living among us. But who would they have brought back? And wouldn’t this person have to be not only someone the Avengers knew well, and someone who is possibly a super-human?_

 

_Well, what if we told you that Howard Stark never actually died?_

 

_Howard Stark not only worked closely with Steve Rogers and Sargent Barnes during the war but was also revealed to have worked for S.H.I.E.L.D- thanks to the information leak in 2014- and spent the remainder of his life searching for the Captain until he was killed during a car accident…_

 

_Or so we were all lead to believe…_

 

Around seven minutes and thirty seconds later of filler theory, it all wrapped up that Howard had been brought back to life by Tony Stark since the super-human powers Howard  _apparently_ gave himself allowed for survival after all these years, but his body and face had been left completely disfigured from the accident, forcing him to wear a sheet to hide his horrifying appearance, the shame upon which forced him to ignore his name, and call himself ' _The Ghost'_. The experience had messed with his head, leaving him crazed with becoming normal, only to continue losing himself in the process- continuously haunting his son and former friend Captain Rogers.

 

Another one that Scott found much more convincing was that there had been another person who was apart of the original Avengers who had died during the final battle with Loki, supposedly with powers of invisibility- which was why no one knew they existed- other than a few blurry shots a person in all white alongside the Avengers that may or may not have been photoshopped.

 

It was claimed that through their attempts to bring this person back by pulling them from the past, they partially succeeded, only their body was left invisible, which was why they wore a sheet of white over themselves to be seen and were back to get revenge on the others for allowing them to die and be forgotten, always in the compound… always waiting…

 

Scott took that one quite seriously since that ghost had mentioned something about ‘the early 2010s’- he had been screaming too much to hear what exactly was said, but he was pretty sure he had at least heard that much…

 

The other theories from the video were all about past villains haunting the Avengers, which also held solid evidence (no they didn’t, he was just tired and alone, and literally just saw a ghost), which didn’t do much to calm his nerves, but did fuel his resolve to find, and rid the place of the ghost.

 

———————————————————————————

 

The Avengers returned to the compound soon enough- it was overkill for all of them to be away, but there had been what they all were hoping was a final meeting for the accords revision.

 

After a long and tiring conversation, they were all looking forward to getting some rest back home- Clint had apparently invited Lang over, but while the man was tireless, it would be a nice change of pace to have, and he had the same sort of energy as Spider-Man, which would be nice to have if the vigilante didn’t make an appearance that day.

 

Everyone tumbled onto the Avengers floor, hardly even able to walk properly- how was it that one meeting where they had all been seated was more tiring than some epic battle against a super-villain?- only to walk in with the lights out and the curtains all shut, which was strange.

 

“Fri, open the lights and curtains”

 

_“Yes, boss.”_

 

Light flooded the floor as the heard a startled _‘oof’_ coming from the living room, presumably Scott. The other made their way to the living room to greet the man, only to see the tired-looking man watch them approach warily with salt or sugar in hand.

 

“Oh thank god it’s just you guys,” Lang breathed in relief.

 

“That’s a flattering welcome,” Tony spoke with mock offense in his voice. “And tell me exactly who else would possibly be on the Avengers private floor in the secure compound?”

 

Scott chose to ignore the billionaire and instead directed his attention to Steve.

 

“Captain, what is your opinion on ghosts?”

 

“Ghosts? Well, I-“ he stopped and glanced at the other Avengers in question. “Is that a joke?”

 

Scott shook his head profusely. “No Cap, look, I know this’ll sound insane, but there’s a ghost here, living at the compound, and I saw it.”

 

“Are you sure it wasn’t a dream?” Wanda asked softly.

 

But Scott just reaffirmed again it was real.

 

“Mr. Lang,” Vision spoke up suddenly. “I fully get the sense that you are being truthful, however, it is impossible for such a thing to exist. I’m afraid that the most likely cause is that you were dreaming, or there is an intruder present in the compound.”

 

“No- I know I… wait, there’s security cameras here, right?” Everyone nodded in affirmation. “Then can someone put it up on the tv or something? It was ummm, I think it was three hours ago, in the kitchen.”

 

“Pull it up Fri.”

 

_“Right away boss.”_

 

All the Avengers turned to face the screen as it put on the dark footage of Scott screeching while throwing salt at a figure in a white sheet.

 

“Holy shit…” Sam muttered as Scott fumbled around for the remote to mute his screaming. “See? A ghost.”

 

“Or an intruder, most likely,” Steve countered. “Friday, have you sensed any intruders or unusual presences while we were gone?”

 

_“No Mr. Rogers.”_

 

“What about when this video was taken? Can you identify the other person pictured… is it floating?” The soldier asked, leaning in to get a better view of the ‘ghost’.

 

_“I am not able to tell you the identity of the person in the video Mr. Rogers.”_

 

Everyone went silent for a moment, unsure of what to do next until Stark made some excuse to leave, disappearing to his floor, leaving the rest alone to theorize.

 

———————————————————————————

 

Once Tony set foot on his floor, he immediately headed towards Peter’s room, but stopped short outside the door and quietly turned the handle. If the kid was awake, there was no point in sneaking around since he had enhanced hearing, but he wasn’t willing to bet that the kid was awake still, and refused to cause any disruptions if he was having a well-deserved nap.

 

Looking inside, he unmistakenly saw Peter sprawled across the bed, with nothing but a white sheet hastily thrown over his limp body.

 

Shaking his head to himself, Tony quietly made his way over to the Small Spider to readjust the blanket, until he felt that the blanket was a tablecloth… pretty much confirming that the speculation of the ‘ghost’s’ identity was solved for Tony. He went over to Peter’s closet to retrieve an actual blanket and switched it out with the tablecloth before making his silent exit again.

 

———————————————————————————

 

In the meantime, however, the Avengers had thought of the same case of Spider-Man being the perpetrator, however Friday kindly reframed from mentioning anything that would confirm that theory, so they all had the pleasant knowledge that there was now an unknown personage in the compound, that may or may not be something supernatural, since according to Scott, the being had mentioned something about dying in the ‘early 2010s’.

 

Now keep in mind that pretty much all of them were exhausted, and despite being heroes, exhaustion really gets to you (look how this all started), so while maybe on a normal day Natasha would’ve pointed out that they should be able to locate and capture the thing in less than an hour, and even if not, they were the _freaking Avengers_ so they wouldn’t need to worry, the exhaustion prevented their saneness from functioning properly, and eventually, after sharing some theories, they all believed that there was a hostile intruder on-premises, and they wouldn’t rest until they were found.

 

So naturally, you can place Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in a completely safe situation, but you can’t take the tiredness away. In other words, if they’ve felt with alien attacks, Ghosts aren’t that much up a step up, especially when _someone’s_ terrible luck (I’m looking at you Peter) manages to fuck everything up, pretty freakin often.

 

It was now dark outside, but all the lights had remained on until Natasha said it was more likely that the person would come out if all the lights were off, which was why they were now patrolling the floor in the dark (it wasn’t because Scott had told them about the flickering lights and they were trying to avoid that creepy atmosphere… totally not the reason).

 

Which was why it was now nearly midnight, and the extremely tired Avengers had been going around the compound, searching every corner imaginable, and now met up empty-handed on their home floor.

 

“Is that it then?” Clint asked disappointedly.

 

“Well, did anyone go to Stark’s floor?” Steve asked, only to be met with murmured ‘no’s’ and ‘I don’t think so’s’.

 

“But Tones probably would’ve told us, right? He’s been there ever since we came back.”

 

“We haven’t heard from him since he left either,” Wanda pointed out. “What if that’s where the Ghost is, and it got Tony?”

 

“Shit…” Clint gasped at this new revelation.

 

“Avengers,” Steve spoke solemnly. “Assemble.”

 

———————————————————————————

 

Tony was still in his lab when the kid wandered in at around midnight.

 

“Hey Mr. Stark, how’d the mission-thingy go?” The Spiderling said with a muffled yawn.

 

“I’d rather not go into it,” the billionaire sighed. “How about you kid? Shouldn’t you still be asleep?” Even without looking at the kid, he could feel Peter roll his eyes at this comment.

 

“I’ve been asleep for like, ten hours Mr. Stark, I don’t think I need any more sleep- also, shouldn’t you be the one getting sleep?”

 

Tony glanced at the clock quickly- twelve-ten, still early- “I recall Rhodey and Pep gave me one am as my 'bedtime', so technically, I can still stay up.”

 

“Then technically we can eat? I’m hungry…”

 

“ _Hi hungry, I’m d_ … your mentor.”

 

“Um, right. So, I’m just gonna go eat… if you wanna come- or not, it’s like, completely up to you.”

 

“Yeah, thanks kid, I’m just going to finish up here…” Tony waved Peter off, and waited until the spider had left before he let his head slam on his desk… maybe sleep was a good thing sometimes. Like maybe it helped you restrain yourself from potentially calling yourself your mentee’s father.

 

He was still laying in self-pity when he heard someone enter the lab.

 

“Tones?”

 

Tony turned his head when he heard Rhodey’s voice but still kept it laying on the table. While he would usually be more than glad to see his best friend, he went into a slight panic since Peter was also currently on the same floor, and the colonel had pretty much guessed the vigilante’s identity, but Peter was currently in the kitchen so it would probably be ok.

 

“What’s up Platypus?”

 

“Jeez, I feel like I should be asking you that- it looks like a train hit you or something, and it’s not even one yet- is everything alright?” Tony waved him off, so Rhodey continued, “I just came to check if you were alright and let you know we still haven’t found the intruder yet, everyone’s still patrolling, but it’s not looking good- have you found anything yet?”

 

This news caused the billionaire to sit up. He had completely forgotten about the whole situation earlier and hadn’t realized that the others were probably very concerned about the so-called ‘intruder’.

 

“Yeah, no worries there, the guy isn’t a threat.”

 

“Really?”

 

Tony gave a firm nod, and Rhodey sighed tiredly. “Tony, if you haven’t found anything yet, don’t worry- hell, we’ve been all around the compound and we still haven’t found him. I’ll tell the others to keep looking.”

 

“No, wait, I really mean it’s ok, he’s gone now.”

 

Rhodey looked skeptical, but was eventually convinced, and left to tell the others.

 

But while everyone was tired (and though they wouldn’t admit it) each had a difficult time going to sleep that night, jolting awake at every sound they heard.

 

In the meantime, Tony was having a nightmare of his own as he tried to convince Peter to eat anything that didn’t have an unhealthy amount of sugar or caffeine in it, until he finally just decided to cook pasta, and Peter somehow managed to convince him to rewatch Back to the Future, since according to the kid ‘it’s the perfect movie to watch at one am’.

 

Tony may or may not have fallen asleep half-way through.

 

———————————————————————————

 

In the morning, everyone silently agreed to never again mention the previous night again, but Scott would forever be suspicious of the Avengers compound.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! 
> 
> I know this chapter was kinda rushed, and not as good as it could've been, but I'm working on getting better, and your support really helps- so thank you so so much!!!!
> 
> if you notice any spelling errors or something, please let me know, it's really helpful, and you won't come across as rude, so don't worry. Im currently going through my past chapters to try and fix it, so if u notice something there, just lemme know!!!
> 
> thank u all again <333333


	6. "who's there?"     "nOBOdY FUCK OFF"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Um, the repercussions of pretending to be a ghost...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still sick, which means I had enough time to write another chapter... yaaaay
> 
> I'm sorry I haven't responded to any of the comments yet, but I have read them all- and thank you so much for all your support on the last chapter!!! They really helped motivated me to write this one!!! <3333
> 
> I wrote this chapter cuz of Drabblewritingbitch's comment (I totally forgot to ask if it was ok to use your idea- I hope it's ok) so,,,,, THANK U!!! <333 honestly idk how to do shoutouts.

So, conspiracy theories.

 

Peter knew his fair share of them after so many late nights at Ned’s house where they binged _BuzzFeed: Unsolved_ episodes. He enjoyed ironically pretending they were true since it’s way more fun that way, but that’s what they were there for, right?

 

After Mr. Stark had fallen asleep that night/morning, he had quietly finished watching _Back to the Future_ , before carrying his mentor to an actual bed- and yes, he could’ve just left him on the couch, but he imagined it would be kinda funny once Mr. Stark realized that a sixteen-year-old had carried him to bed- and going to his room and skimming through Tumblr for a few hours before relenting and going back to sleep.

 

When he woke up later the same morning, it was around ten, so he decided to don his Spider-Suit and head down for breakfast with the Avengers.

 

Rather than using the elevator, he opted to climb outside and enter through the windows, since it would probably seem more natural for Spider-Man to enter without the use of an elevator.

 

When he came inside though, what he saw shocked him- the place was an absolute mess.

 

“What the hell happened here?” He asked aloud, mostly to himself.

 

“We’re not going into it,” Wanda responded tiredly from the kitchen counter where she was drinking coffee with the other dead-tired looking Avengers that littered the kitchen.

 

“Um, ok…” he responded, but it was anything _but_ ok. Pillows were thrown across the room, the kitchen was covered in white grains, and Pop-Tarts covered the floor. The white grain-stuff wasn’t just thrown about in the kitchen though, as he peered farther into the living room, he could see it strewn across the couches and floor, it even dusted some of the curtains.

 

As far as he had heard, nothing had happened down here during the time he was awake, otherwise, he would’ve heard it, right? But Mr. Stark didn’t seem that surprised with the state of the floor currently, so the only person here who was clueless about it all was Peter, and he had been the one in the compound all night.

 

He was slightly skeptical of eating the floored Pop-Tarts, so he easily grabbed the coffee mug his mentor had been drinking from and lifted his mask a little to take a sip. He knew Mr. Stark was pretty broken when he simply allowed Peter take steal his beverage, and turned around to make another cup for himself (Rhodey was the only one who noticed this, watching the small interaction in wonder at how simply Spider-Man was able to steal Tony’s beloved coffee without a fight).

 

When no one spoke after a few seconds, Peter decided to break the silence.

 

“So, what’d you guy’s do last night? I mean, I heard you had some meeting or something but was that actually a secret way of saying you had a party? You can be honest, I totally won’t be offended that I wasn’t invited…”

 

By the looks of the place, he had figured that they most definitely did _not_ have a party, since who the hell had a party with fallen Pop-Tarts and white dust? Then again, he had never been to a superhero party before, but he figured that it wasn’t like what the room displayed, most likely anyway. Mostly he just wanted to start up a conversation, but when no one responded, he continued the conversation aloud with himself doing most of the speaking.

 

“I mean, I get that I’m not an Avenger yet, so it makes sense that I wasn't invited, but if anyone’s to blame for me not being an Avenger, it’s Mr. Stark,” he ignored as his mentor gave him a slightly betrayed look as he turned on the coffee machine. Time to change subjects.

 

“I mean, I had a pretty good night myself. I slept mostly though, yeah I was pretty tired cuz I had a lot of homework, so that sucked, and I basically sold my soul to get it done, but y’ know, if you sell your soul once, that means you can’t do it again, right? I mean, I’m not sure how exactly that goes, since I haven’t really done that kind of transaction before, so, yeah.”

 

Still nothing…

 

“You meant house-work right? Like fixing your house?”

 

Oh! Actual response from Sam. Oh… shit, he just said homework.

 

“Ha, yeah, house-work, I don’t, I can’t do homework, that’d be weird, unless I had kids or something, then it would make sense… yeah… I’m, I’m pretty handy around the house, that’s a thing now, I guess.”

 

Sam nodded but didn’t say anything else. They all looked so dead inside, Peter would almost feel bad if he wasn’t more curious as to how this all happened in the first place, but no one was answering him, so he took a seat at the table and waited for someone to speak up.

 

As he glanced around the kitchen, it reminded him that his room was hardly any better, which led him to think about that time someone had started a food fight in the cafeteria, which he had thought was something that only happened in those really old high-school films or the amazing Disney-Channel original movies that had meant everything in his childhood, I mean, you can’t top those classics… they all ended up getting detention though and were forced to sit through one of the Captain’s PSA’s about ‘the importance of keeping clean at school, and at home’ more than once until they pretty much had it memorized.

 

He suddenly felt very bitter, since he had to sit there, a normal teenager (at the time), and watch as a super-soldier told him to clean up- and the solider didn’t even know the full story, but still got to lecture them on repeat, for an hour. And now here he was, just sitting calmly at a table as he looks upon the mess he created, covering him in hypercritical lies, while there were innocent kids out there being tortured by him, trusting that Captain America was at least true to his words.

 

“So, you made a mess,” Peter started in the classic PSA Cap voice, causing Steve to look up, suddenly panicked. _Good_ , Peter thought. “Maybe it was a joke, or maybe you were trying to get revenge. Sometimes, it’s even an accident,” the other Avengers started to eye him weirdly at this, but the arachnid only had his attention on Steve and the terror in his eyes. “But no matter the cause, it’s important to realize the part you played in creating it- and it’s up to you to play your part in cleaning it up, or taking some sort of responsibility for it. Perhaps your thinking that it isn’t fair, that it wasn’t you’re fault, but despite this-“

 

“Spider-Man,” Rhodey interrupted tiredly, “I get what you're saying, but out of all of us here, you're the most disaster-prone person, and we’re all pretty much dead, so if you don’t mind saving the lecture for later…”

 

“Right, of course, sorry Mr. Rhodes…”

 

They resumed sitting in silence while Peter debated if it was rude to just leave since this was getting pretty boring. As he was trying to come up with some valid excuse to leave, his enhanced hearing picked up on another person moving towards them and mentioned it to the others.

 

What he _had_ expected was for Mr. Stark to mention Pepper was there or some other worker. What he _hadn’t_ expected was for pretty much everyone in the room to tense up, with Clint, Sam, and Wanda even standing up cautiously to face where Spidey had heard the noise.

 

The person in question turned out to be Scott Lang, which resulted in everyone calming down again as the man entered, bringing with him the air of relief from something. Peter was starting to feel really out of the loop since it was obvious that everyone was on edge, and he didn’t even know that Ant-Man was going to be at the compound. Deciding not to dwell on it, he stood up from where he was sitting to go over and introduce himself.

 

“Hey Mr. Lang, I’m Spider-Man, we uh, sorta met in Germany? I was the guy who tied your legs up…”

 

“Yeah I remember you,” the man said with a tired smile. “Good to officially meet you. Are you here to help with the Ghost?”

 

“Ghost?” He echoed, turning to look at Mr. Stark, who just stared at him with exhaustion while taking a sip of coffee. He turned back to try and see if Scott was joking, but the man’s eyes were devoid of humour, apparently fully believing there was a ghost in the compound… “Uh, sorry, no one told me about any ghosts, wait- is that what happened here? Is that why there’s salt all over the place?”

 

———————————————————————————————

 

Scott nodded seriously, and Spider-Man turned to face the others who had a mixture of expressions ranging from scared to embarrassed.

 

“ _Waitwaitwait,_ so you’re telling me that you all actually believe there’s a ghost in the compound?”

 

“Well, maybe not a ghost,” Steve said, ever the realist, “but there’s an intruder in here.”

 

“And you thought throwing salt at the guy was gonna get rid of him?” Spidey asked through muffled laughs.

 

“Hey, that was Tic-Tac’s idea,” Sam defended.

 

“Well I guess he would feel pretty a-salt-ed,” Spider-Man laughed before stopping. “I feel like I’ve used that one before…”

 

Tony rolled his eyes and took another swig of his coffee.

 

“Well, did you ask Friday to track them down?” Spider-Man suggested.

 

“Yep, tried it several times, she couldn’t find them.”

 

“Maybe it left?”

 

“Spider-Man,” Scott said suddenly. “Can I speak with you in private for a minute?”

 

“Uhhh, sure…”

 

Scott nodded in thanks and led him down the hallway, and into his room.

 

“This stays between you and me, got it?”

 

“Yeah, totally.”

 

Scott took a deep breath before confessing: “I think the Avengers are hiding something.”

 

“What?”

 

“Ok, I’ve heard rumours of there being another Avenger, one that died a long time ago, and based on these rumours, they were brought back to life… are you following?”

 

“Yes…?”

 

“Great, so, I’m not officially an Avenger, and neither are you, which is why I’m trusting you with this. But I think this rumour is true… and, if they did manage to bring this person back, but failed in bringing them back fully, then what do you think would happen?”

 

“…”

 

“…”

 

“I’m not really-“

 

“Right- revenge. Which bring us to yesterday, when the Avengers were all gone, the Ghost finally was able to free itself, thinking it was alone, and instead and ran into me, meaning that it has no choice but to exact its plot for revenge now, which is why we need to find it, and why it’s probably still here.”

 

“Did you get all of that from a conspiracy video?”

 

“… You need to trust me on this, we can be the bug team! Bug-buddies?”

 

“Actually, spiders are arachnids…”

 

“It’s the thought that counts. Comm'on I really need your help here, the Avengers will never admit to this, so you’re the only one I can trust right now, _please._ ”

 

“I mean, it is Saturday, so I don’t really have anything else to do…”

 

“So, can I count on you?”

 

“I’m up for some ant-tics.”

 

———————————————————————————————

 

The first thing Scott did was show Spidey the conspiracy videos that had fuelled him so much. He couldn’t entirely tell if the man believed in them or not, but it seemed like he was willing to play along, which was more than he could ask for. Spider-Man seemed particularly excited about the ‘extra Avenger’ theory, so that was the one they decided to research first.

 

Spidey somehow managed to pull up security footage from that fateful fight, and after painstakingly watching the recordings for any slight indication of another member (they lasted forty-seven minutes- it’s Peter and Scott- what exactly were you expecting?), they had enough shaky footage to convince Scott they were dealing with a real ghost, but how to go about finding it was another issue all of its own.

 

“What if we just go around throwing salt everywhere?” Spidey suggested through a mouthful of popcorn. “We’re bound to find something that way.”

 

“Isn’t that a little… extreme?”

 

“Dude, we’re trying to find a ghost, nothing is extreme.”

 

“Yeah but, there's probably more efficient ways to get rid of one, right? There’s probably some instructional videos on how to do it-“

 

“Ok, fine. While you do that, I’m just gonna go start with the salt…”

 

“WAIT- wait, I thought we were in this together?”

 

“We are, I just want results faster than what you’re suggesting.”

 

“Alright, alright, salt it is- just I’m pretty sure there’s a better way to do this-“

 

“Yeah, probably- let’s GO!”

 

———————————————————————————————

 

Ok, so there was most definitely a better way to get rid of a ghost if they were real, and Peter knew this more than anyone since he and Ned went through a phase when they were eight, and well, they watched way too many of those ghost-hunting videos.

 

He knew there was a better way, but he also knew he wanted to be a little shit and throw salt all over the place, and then lecture the good ole’ American Captain about cleaning up, so this was really the best option. He also wasn’t completely sure how serious this all was, since the very idea seemed hilarious from the get-go, and for some reason, he couldn’t shake the feeling he already knew the answer to it all.

 

But either way, it was a pretty fun experience to run through the Avengers home, throwing white dust everywhere like it was pixie dust, without repercussions since apparently everyone else was weirdly invested in this whole experience too- less than Scott, but it was still noticeable… other than Tony who had just been watching with a tired expression.

 

———————————————————————————————

 

Meanwhile, Scott was growing frantic.

 

After he and Spidey doused the place in salt with no results, he scanned the internet for other instructions and begun to work his way through them relentlessly, even to the point of tiring Spider-Man.

 

“Scott, it’s probably gone, let’s just finish up now, or ask Hope to come up and help you, or something.”

 

“I hate to agree with the Spider-freak, but he’s right Tic-Tac, you just gotta let it go,” Sam spoke up.

 

“We don’t know who or what this is,” Clint argued. “We need to do something.”

 

“How do you even know there’s a ghost here?” Spidey asked with exasperation. “What if you just like, imagined it, or it was a hologram or something? Sam and I did that once…”

 

“No, Stark’s AI told me there was another person on the floor, and it was talking to me,” Scott defended.

 

“Waitwaitwait- it spoke? Did you like, film it or something? Maybe there’s a clue!”

 

“The AI filmed it! Can you put it up- um, Friday, was it?”

 

_“Yes, just one moment Mr. Lang.”_

 

The footage went on-screen, and the four people remaining in the room leaned in to watch, this time refraining from muting the sound to hear what the ghost said.

 

“Oh _shit,_ ” Spidey murmured once he saw the ghost.

 

———————————————————————————————

 

Yeah, so Peter had forgotten about the events of last night, and how he had actually played a role in the party the Avengers had without him- truly, the party didn’t start until he arrived, he was the life of it, and his spirit got it all started (he was only slightly ashamed that these were his first thoughts, but no, not really).

 

“Oh _shit_ ,” he said, just now realizing what happened.

 

“I know, it’s actually a ghost,” Scott agreed.

 

“Shit, no, no that’s not a ghost, that’s um, yeah. Ok, so I’m pretty sure that’s me…”

 

Clint, Sam, and Scott all swerved their heads to stare at the vigilante. “What do you mean, ‘ _it’s me?_ ’”

 

Sam shook his head. “We asked Friday if it was you, and she said _‘cannot identify the person pictured.’_ ”

 

“She probably meant _‘can not’_ , not _‘cannot.’_ There’s a difference, I think Mr. Stark has a protocol to not give you any information on me when I’m not in my suit…”

 

“Alright, hold on,” Clint interrupted, raising his hands in pause. “What do you mean exactly by ‘you weren’t in your suit’? Did you just decide to swing in, get changed, and just waltz onto the Avengers floor?”

 

“He didn’t even get changed, he just threw a blanket over himself and called it a day,” Sam stated.

 

“Wait, so there isn’t a ghost? Why didn’t you just introduce yourself?”

 

“And how would he do that? Just jump down and say he’s Spider-Man but forgot the suit?”

 

“That would be better than me just throwing salt at him.”

 

“Why did you even need to come to the Avengers level in the first place? You don’t even have a room here.”

 

Peter sat with his head in his hands during this whole discussion, already regretting his life, when the room went silent after Clint asked that last question.

 

“I was tired,” he answered softly. “And I just wanted some fucking Cherry Pop-Tarts, is that so wrong?”

 

The three heroes sat in silence as they stared at the clearly broken vigilante, his masked eyes squinted in exhaustion.

 

Sam chuckled a little, and then he broke out into laughter, laughing harder and harder until Clint joined in, followed by Spidey and Scott, soon leading to the four of them on the floor, lying in a pile of tears and salt.

 

———————————————————————————————

 

Somehow Spider-Man convinced the other three not to tell the others the truth about the matter since it would _‘shatter the already broken bones of his dreams, leaving any remainder of his dignity shredded into nothing but the obscure memories of his hopeless grades’_ , and while no one was entirely sure what that meant, they agreed to save their friend from utter embarrassment, and since the others mostly seemed less concerned about the ghost then the small group, it was an easy topic to avoid.

 

And truly, the real horror for the moment was for Steve, and how Spider-Man kept seemingly quoting his PSA’s…

 

Now, it wasn’t unknown that Spider-Man was more consistently on his phone than the other Avengers.

 

Clint suspected that he was checking up on his family to make sure they were alright.

 

Steve thought it was whenever the conversation took a turn to be personal, and he used his phone to protect himself from saying anything unnecessary.

 

Vision predicted he was going through crime rates, or news articles to stay on top of it all.

 

Natasha guessed he was spiraling through identity theories to be informed of the public opinion on himself.

 

Wanda had noticed when he often seemed uncomfortable- perhaps over being the only non-Avenger.

 

Sam didn’t really want to assume things about his friend, but he did, however, hope he was looking up recipes (as the only person in the world who liked Peter’s terrible cooking).

 

And Rhodey just couldn’t believe his friend thought of putting a phone pocket in his suit- truly a dad move.

 

Peter, on the other hand, had an incredibly low attention span, and yeah, even though he was friends with the Avengers, he did still get nervous around them kinda frequently- like one minute, he was just sitting in the living room with his friends, the next he was sitting on the _ever-loving ceiling_ , surrounded by his childhood _heroes_. So the nerves came and went, but it was helpful to have his phone with him to be distracted so he didn’t start freaking out making him wish the mask could hide his voice as well (and not like the interrogation mode… thanks Mr. Stark).

 

Today though, Spider-Man seemed to be consistently on his phone, as they all sat in the kitchen, hardly looking up (or down technically, since he was on the ceiling) from his phone. Each of the Avengers stuck to their usual theories on why the spider was using his phone so much and awkwardly attempted to make small talk that might entice him into joining them below.

 

Steve had noticed that Spider-Man had been strangely quiet for the past while, and glanced up at the arachnid above him who had yet to join in the conversation. He coughed a bit in an attempt to draw Spidey’s attention away from the phone, but since that hardly seemed to do anything, he decided to go for the more direct approach.

 

He grabbed one of the chairs by the kitchen table and turned it around so he could sit facing where the spider was and lean on the backrest while speaking with him.

 

“So,” he started, looking up at Spider-Man.

 

“You got detention,” Spider-Man cut in without tearing his gaze to his phone- therefore missing when everyone stared at him, questioning his odd statement, while Steve found himself unable to function as he tried to consider what the hell was just said.

 

“Spider-Man,” Tony said, using unusual caution in his voice as he spoke. “What exactly are you talking about?”

 

Hearing the billionaire speak was apparently enough to snap Spidey back into reality.

 

“Hmm? What’s up, Mr. Stark?”

 

“What did you mean by: ‘you got detention’?”

 

“Wh-whatd’a mean? I-I didn’t get deten- ohhhh, um,” he glanced at Steve who just looked at him in mute horror. “Sorry just- someone I know got detention is all, I’m just- I was just thinking out loud...”

 

Steve wanted to sigh relief, since Spider-Man did supposedly have a child/children, so it was perfectly reasonable to determine that the man had been upset and vocalized his thoughts, but another part of Steve felt unsafe. The voice he put on, and the way he had said it so off-handedly as if he naturally made that joke was enough to make Steve question why he ever made those PSAs.

 

The conversation thankfully moved on to more friendly territories that Spider-Man joined in after a while, but this was twice now that Steve felt unsafe with the apparent knowledge Spider-Man possesses… it was only a coincidence, right? How would he know about the PSA’s?

 

———————————————————————————————

 

(I’m sorry Steve, but you ain’t safe with the Spider around)

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading, I really hope u enjoyed it!!!
> 
> And I just wanted to give all of you a list of chapters I have half written out, or have in mind to write:
> 
> Ned and Peter
> 
> school field trip
> 
> Carol meets Spidey 
> 
> Avengers find out about the Cap PSA 
> 
> Avengers are motivational speakers at school
> 
> Sick Spidey who's honestly an idiot
> 
> Hammer tech 
> 
> Rhodey meets Peter and there's confusion
> 
> spidey photographer peter
> 
> Stark Expo
> 
> something w/ Karen meeting the Avengers
> 
> and I have 1 identity reveal chapter written and ready... but its not gonna be posted for a while


	7. "has anyone ever told you you look like Spider-Man?" "No they usually tell me i look like Peter" "who the fuck is that" "mE"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhodey finally meets the infamous intern

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I never realized how much spare time u have when your sick...
> 
> Anywaysss, thank you all so much for all the support over the past few days, like wow, your all so sweet??? THANK YOU!!!!!
> 
> I really hope you enjoy this chapter!!!

The Avengers had been made aware of the influence they carried on society, and recently the local school boards had contacted them about maybe hosting assemblies in person at a few select schools for all grades, which Pepper thought had been a great idea, and asked Rhodey to bring it up with the other Avengers (she didn’t really expect Tony to remember if she gave him that responsibility), so the colonel had agreed to discuss it with everyone, and decided to start with Tony.

 

He was pretty much aware that the billionaire didn’t normally allow anyone in his lab Friday afternoons or evenings, but F.R.I.D.A.Y had allowed him in, so he didn’t see the harm in stopping in quickly.

 

“Hey Tones, mind if I interrupt for a minute?”

 

“Hm? Yeah, go ahead, I got time,” his friend responded absent-mindedly.

 

“I was just talking with Pepper, and she mentioned this thing the local schools were asking if we were interested in?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Yeah, like, going and giving speeches or something, maybe some safety reminders-“

 

“ _Oh god_.”

 

“Ok look, I know it doesn’t sound very glamorous, but it might be a good idea to try and show ourselves being a positive influence for these kids-“

 

“Do you really think that the Avengers telling kids ‘don’t do drugs’ will actually stop them, or will we just become some new sort of meme?”

  
“That’s your concern?”

  
“Trust me, it’s a valid one.”

 

“I don’t think-“

 

Just then, the workshop door opened and a kid walked through, causing Rhodey to pause the conversation, as the kid almost immediately flopped on the nearest couch with his head buried in a pillow.

 

“Kid, what’re you doing-“ the billionaire started, but was interrupted.

 

“I wanna fucking _die_ Mr. Stark,” the boy stated plainly.

 

Trying to cover his panicked/concerned-yet-exasperated look (which made Rhodey realize that Tony was probably used to comments like that), Tony avoided looking at the colonel, and instead focused his attention on the moping teen.

 

“I thought you weren’t coming today? It’s pretty late-”

 

“I got detention.”

 

“You- how?“

 

“Mr. Stark, it wasn’t my fault, _I swear_.”

 

Tony had now given up pretending that he didn’t care, probably figuring that Rhodey had already seen him act fatherly with Harley before, so it would hardly be surprising- just more relentless teasing for about a week. The billionaire had opened his mouth to reply to the kid’s claims, but the teen continued, his voice muffled from under the pillow, and still oblivious to the fact that he and Tony weren’t the only ones in the room.

 

“I ran into a bunch of lockers,” the kid started, leaving a questionable pause as if that simple statement would clear everything up.

 

“And?” Tony prodded impatiently. “Wait- how _the fuck_ did you run into lockers? Did someone push you?”

 

“Nah, I just jumped into them.”

 

Rhodey fought back the urge to laugh as he saw the regretful facial expression that his friend made. Tony sighed and rubbed his head in an entirely father-like motion as he considered what to say in response to the apparent sarcasm.

 

“Sorry kid, I wasn’t sure- I didn’t want to just _assume_ you were being bullied-“

 

The teen sat up in a sorta rushed manner, causing him to shut his eyes and clutch his head almost immediately. “Ah, _shit_ , headrush- no, Mr. Stark, I mean I literally ran into a wall of lockers.” He explained before flopping back down.

 

“And why the _ever-loving-fuck_ would you do that?”

 

“Oh, like, I did it purposely- Ned was even filming it,” the kid explained as if it were perfectly normal.

 

The colonel was both impressed and scared that Tony was restraining himself from yelling at the kid- he was impressed because Tony seriously looked like he wanted to explode yet was keeping his cool, and he was scared because his friend looked seconds away from the explosion. He was surprised though, when Tony suddenly looked less angry, and a slight worry came over his eyes- something only those close to him would notice.

 

“Did you say you ran into the lockers, or _onto_ the lockers?”

 

That was… an odd question… unless-

 

“I ran _into_ them, Mr. Stark. I’m not gonna just start climbing lockers randomly like I’m Spider-Man- plus I don’t think they could give me detention for that,” he answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. The Spider-Man comment caused Rhodey to hit the pause on where his previous thoughts had been leading him, but they were still there, and besides Tony seeming close with the teen, there was also something vaguely familiar about the way he acted.

 

Rhodey wasn’t gonna lie- the whole ‘jumping into lockers for no reason’ seemed like a very Spidey thing to do.

 

“Then why would they give you detention for just slamming into them- and why the _hell_ was your friend just filming?”

 

“Uhhh, one- I asked him to film, and two- I sorta-maybe-really forgot the possibilities, and kinda ended up denting them. A bit.”

 

Although Rhodey was becoming pretty invested in the conversation (it had been pretty wild from the get-go) his friend decided that suddenly, the conversation wasn’t working with just the two of them.

 

“Kid, Rhodey’s in the lab by the way, why don’t you introduce yourself before you make an even worse first impression.”

 

The kid looked up wearily, before catching sight of the colonel who gave him a small wave and a smile, which caused the kid’s eye to go wide in shock.

 

“Shit- I mean, um…”

 

The teen got up suddenly, looking a little dazed and embarrassed, and nervously walked up to Rhodey, tripping on about a million times on his way over- sometimes on actual items littering the workshop, sometimes on himself, and sometimes just for the sake of tripping. “Um, thank you for your service colonel James Rhodes sir,” he said with a sharp salute.

 

“There’s no need for that kid,” Rhodey reassured, and held out his hand to shake- which the kid skeptically took _very_ lightly for some odd reason. “You can just call me Rhodey.”

 

“Uh, thank you sir…” the kid quickly pulled his hand away, and stared at the ground, clearly nervous.

 

“And your name?”

 

“Oh! Uh, right, sorry… Um, my name is Peter with a B, and I’ve been afraid of insects my whole life-“

 

As far as interdictions go, this one already seemed pretty weird- and Rhodey had met a lot of strange people, with a lot of uncomfortable interactions- but this kid seemed desperate to top them all, dragging the colonel along for the ride.

 

Which was why Rhodey questioned it without thinking.

 

“Wait, where is it?”

 

“Hm?”

 

“Where’s the B?”

 

“There’s A BEE?!”

 

“What- no, there’s no bee!” He called urgently in a desperate attempt to calm the kid who had literally just told him he was afraid of insects. “I meant your name!”

 

But it was too late- Peter was already curled up on the floor, holding himself while shaking; the colonel dropped to the ground in desperation to help the panicking kid, and was surprised when Tony hadn’t gotten up from his seat but was watching with a tired expression.

 

“Tones?”

 

“I’m fine Mr. Rhodes-“ the teen said through laughs. “Sorry, I-I just-“ he started a new round of laughter, but managed to at least get himself sitting upright.

 

“This is so fucking confusing,” Rhodey muttered as the laughing continued, while Stark just sighed in tiredness (and a bit of fondness).

 

The humour dropped from Peter’s face almost instantly as he realized what had just happened. “Shit, sorry Mr. Rhodes, but- um, Mr. Stark and I made a bet? And um…”

 

Rhodey gave a quick look at his friend and deduced that this was, in fact, new knowledge to him as well, but Tony shrugged and said nothing against it in an attempt to save his intern from complete embarrassment.

 

“My-uh my name really is Peter though, but it’s not spelled with a B- well, my middle name starts with a B, but there isn’t one in my first name. And I’m not actually afraid of insects- I’m really afraid of spiders though, but those are arachnids, so they don’t really count…”

 

Peter got up from the floor and squared his shoulders a bit. “Sorry to interrupt Mr. Stark, I didn’t realize you had someone here, I’ll just- I’ll come back after you’re done.”

 

“It’s no problem Peter,” Rhodey said warmly, albeit still a little put off by the consistent confusion that seemed to lace the kid. “It’s ok if you stay here while we talk. If you intern for Tony, you’re probably used to hearing this sort of stuff, and we weren’t really discussing anything ’top-secret’ anyway.”

 

“Actually it would be best if the kid left to do his homework now, since that’s _incredibly important_ to him, apparently.”

 

“I’m never gonna live that down, am I? Um- it was super cool to meet you, colonel Rhodes! Th-thank you… see you, Mr. Stark.” Peter said, tripping on his way to the door.

 

“Yep, later undero- under… uh, I’ll be working under one of my cars… if you can’t find me… _I’m under a car_ …”

 

“Righhhht. Thanks, Mr. Stark…”

 

Rhodey watched as Peter left, barely missing the doorpost on his way out, and finally allowed for the awkwardness of the entire encounter to hit him. Well, it was an introduction, not an encounter, but the latter seemed like a better word for it since he was genuinely wondering if Tony just adopted some sort of alien.

 

“So…” he initialized after a long silence. “That’s your intern? The one that helps you with building our stuff?”

 

“That… that would be him.”

 

_So that’s the person who is possibly Spider-Man?_ Rhodey asked himself. On one hand, the billionaire had seemed nervous the whole time, as if he was hiding something- it surely seemed as if Peter was Spider-Man purely based on how his friend had been reacting to the conversation… but on the other hand, while Spider-Man was awkward at times, and was often downright weird, this seemed like a whole new level of awkwardness and weirdness as if he was running off of nothing but _Mountain Dew_ and _Red Bull_.

 

He had thought that the moment he met the intern, it would be cleared up immediately if the person was Spidey or not, but this interaction had honestly just left it all so muddled in confusion.

 

“Is he… usually like that?”

 

“Pretty much.”

 

“And he’s smart?”

 

“Incredibly so.”

 

The two friends shifted into silence as the colonel considered what to say next, while Tony seemed perfectly ok with focusing his attention on whatever contraption he was working on until Rhodey finally said goodnight, and left the billionaire in the peacefulness of his lab.

 

———————————————————————————————

 

The colonel made his way back down to the Avengers level, where a majority of the Avengers were lounging around along with Spider-Man, who had apparently arrived while he was talking to Tony.

 

Rhodey couldn’t help but feel slightly suspicious of the fact that Spider-Man had arrived at the same time the kid had left, and despite not wanting to intrude on Spidey’s personal business, he was also very curious too- who wouldn’t be?

 

The others greeted him as he sat down and half-heartedly joined in the conversation, and decided this was as good as any time to mention the school’s offer.

 

“ _Oh god no_ ,” Spidey breathed out almost immediately.

 

“Wait- really? I thought you’d be all for it,” Clint said confusedly.

 

“Well I think it’s a pretty great idea,” Steve said slightly cautious. “If it’ll help the kids.”

 

“Yeah, I definitely didn’t think _you’d_ be up for that Cap,” Spider-Man quipped in a sarcastic tone.

 

“Why are you against it?” Wanda asked in sincere curiosity.

 

“Let’s just say I’ve had bad experiences with school lectures, and let’s please never bring the subject up again. I mean, do any of you know how terrible it is to get detention?”

 

“You used to get detention?” Sam laughed. “How’d you even get it? Bring all your pet spiders to school or something?”'

 

“Honestly? You’re laughing now, but if you heard the lectures I’ve been given through detention, you’d probably want to freakin murder Steve right now.”

 

“What do I have to do with detention?” The solider asked worriedly.

 

“That’s what _I’d_ like to know,” Spidey said with slight anger masking his tone as his eyes narrowed. “What _do_ you have to do with detention?”

 

“Alright, we’re getting off-topic here,” Rhodey interrupted. “You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to- personally, I think it’s a great opportunity to meet the kids of New York, and maybe help them a bit, especially after having to live in a world that faces super-villain attacks on top of everything else, we owe it to them to at least try and help to inspire them and show them their safe. I’m leaving the papers here so you can all look over them and argue to your heart's content, but I’m pretty tired, so I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

 

With that, the colonel left, leaving the rest of them to argue amongst themselves.

 

———————————————————————————————

 

“I’m so. Freakin. Done” were Sam’s first words upon entering the compound after he and Steve went on their usual morning jog.

 

“Do I even want to know why?” Tony asked from the table he was playing cards with Spider-Man (who was hanging from the ceiling), while Spidey only responded with “mood.”

 

Sam sighed as he collapsed on one of the couches. “Y’ know those stupid websites sixteen-year-olds like to read?”

 

“ _Hey_ ,” Spider-Man said in slight offense, but when Sam looked over, the response was apparently at Stark who had just grabbed the cards from Spidey’s hands.

 

“Are you two even listening?”

 

“Yeah, of course, you’re super good at _talon_ stories,” Spider-Man looked between Stark and Sam with muffled laughter while the two men honestly tried to ignore the pun.

 

“Just please continue before he comes up with any more,” Tony said with the exasperation of someone who had been dealing with Spider-Man probably all morning.

 

“Right, well, they apparently decided to do some article on the ‘Best Looking Avenger’, and it’s been going viral all over-“

 

“It’d totally make sense for it to ‘ _go viral all over_ ’ since that’s what going viral means-“

 

“He’s been like this all day-“

 

“Mr. Stark, you’ve been awake for like, two hours, I hardly think you can count that as all day.”

 

“Can you two stop interrupting-“

 

“I’m only interrupting to stop the kid from interrupting-“

 

“I’m only offering valid and fun points to this conversation-“

 

It was at this point that Sam decided to leave since he was getting nowhere with venting, and the conversation was moving too quickly for him to keep track anymore, so he left to the kitchen instead where Wanda and Vision were arguing over cooking once again. They were supposedly trying to make quiche, but Wanda believed in tasting and experimenting to get it right, while Vision preferred to rely completely on googling recipes and following step-by-step, which often resulted in havoc, so Sam left them alone (also he slightly felt bad about Vision’s score in the article). That pretty much just left Nat and Clint to complain to, and since he didn’t entirely feel like interrupting them as they trained, he just decided to wait until breakfast to bring it up.

 

———————————————————————————

 

They were all sitting around the compound kitchen as they ate, some at the table, and some at the island, which resulted in a pretty domestic scene despite them all being superheroes (Wanda and Vision just ended up making separate quiches, and while none of them wanted to offend the android, Wanda’s ended up being the best tasting one).

 

There was a rare silent moment, so Sam decided to bring up the article again, and the reaction was almost immediate.

 

“Wait really? What’s my score?” Clint asked excitedly.

 

“Am I in it?” Spider-Man wondered.

 

“Is it actually accurate?” Tony countered.

 

“Ok, hold on, I have it here,” Sam said in defeat as he brought up the article. “Alright, I have some problems with this list, honestly speaking- I mean, in the first place is Thor-“

 

“YES!” Spider-Man cheered and they all turned to face him. “Uh, I’m sorry, but can anyone argue with that?” Admittedly, no one could, so they ignore the small outburst as Sam continued, “he’s been gone for how long, and yet he still gets the honour of beating us all in this stupid list?”

 

“He _is_ a god Sam,” Spidey defended.

 

“Next is Cap-“

 

“I’m sorry,” Tony interrupted. “Steve is listed before me? Gimme the phone.” Sam obliged in handing it over, and Tony wasted no time in scrolling through the list. “They included Scott and T’Challa too? Last time I checked they weren’t Avengers-“ Spider-Man grabbed the phone from Tony in excitement.

 

“Does that mean I’m on the list too?”

 

“Hey, ok get my phone away from Spidey- I’ve seen how cracked his screen is.”

 

“Yeah, it reflects how shattered my soul is…”

 

Sam watched in fear as Spider-Man scrolled through his phone for a much longer amount of time then it was needed to fully read the article when he silently handed the phone back to Sam before heart-brokenly stating: “they didn’t include me…”

 

If this wasn’t just some stupid BuzzMound (or Feed?) article, Sam might’ve felt bad for the man- but it was honestly just hilarious that he wasn’t included and how down he was about being discluded that Sam couldn’t help but laugh.

 

“Bro, not cool!”

 

“They probably just didn’t include you because you wear a mask,” Wanda suggested, trying to sound sincere and hide her smile from the vigilante.

 

“It’s what’s on the inside that counts! Besides, if I didn’t have a mask, I’d probably have you all beat- well, maybe not Thor- but the rest of you for sure,” he spoke with such confidence that it was hard to decide whether they should laugh, or take what he was saying in truthfulness.

 

Most of them chose to laugh though.

 

“I’m serious!”

 

Tony held his head in his hands but was still shaking with laughter along the rest of them. “Kid, you’re digging your own grave.”

 

“Bold of you to assume I don’t already have it dug.”

 

———————————————————————————————

 

So, what was the full story behind Peter getting detention you ask?

 

Well, our two lovable idiots (Ned and Peter) decided they wanted to do that thing that happened in a lot of vines, which was jumping into a row of lockers face-first without hesitation, y’ know, just for fun!

 

While arguing which one of them would do it, Peter made the valid argument that since he had an increased healing factor, he should be the one to do it, since it probably wouldn’t hurt him as much. That was actually their peak of smartness since it sorta all went down-hill from there.

 

See, they remembered his heightened healing, but not his increased strength, so naturally, when Peter jumped full-force into a wall of lockers, instead of merely slamming into and sliding off the damn things, he crashed into and crippled several lockers. No one could figure out how _the hell_ he managed to do it, but they, unfortunately, had overwhelming proof that he was the one responsible for the damaged property… somehow.

 

Which was why he was forced to be late to Mr. Stark’s lab, and why he was particularly annoyed that he had to watch another fun-filled hour of Cap’s PSA’s.

 

Because watching Captain America tell him how a _‘hot lunch will give him an edge’_ was _exactly_ how he wanted to spend his time- it truly was every student dream to be lectured by a hundred-year-old man.

 

(Tony was the one who paid for the school damage cost…)

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!! 
> 
> Oh yea and, I don't actually have an opinion on the list of best-looking Avengers, I just chose the first list that showed up...
> 
> I also have a question for you all- so I write a lot of original stories too, and I'm just wondering if anyone would be interested in reading them if I posted on wattpad or something? I haven't edited any of them yet since I only write it for fun, but if anyone would wanna give it a read, let me know! It'd be really great to have the support! 
> 
> (I'd still write fanfics tho, nothing will stop me from that)


	8. "daddy?" "dO I LOOK LIKE YOUR-"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ned & Peter chapter, cuz they have a incredibly underrated friendship
> 
> (Also I'm Most Definitely putting Ned in more, no one can fucking stop me- DON'T TRY TO STOP ME!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just saw FFH a second time, and it was just as amazing as I remembered, but I'm also super-sad, cuz I wanna go see it again, but alas I am a Broke Highschooler who cannot pay for another ticket
> 
> (also I'm saving up to go see the downton abby movie, soooo)
> 
> Thank you so much for all your support so far!!! it really does keep me motivated to write!!!
> 
> <3333

“What the  _fuck_ ,” Spider-Man said suddenly, and leaned across Tony to grab the billionaire’s seatbelt and proceeded to put it in place. “You need to fucking buckle up, it’s the  _law_.”

 

Tony gave him an exasperated glance before turning to Steve and beginning to make light conversation with him, pointedly ignoring Spidey. And while Steve was close with both of them, it was more than awkward to be stuck in a group with the two of them together, and at this point he would gladly give anything to have been put in the car with Wanda Vision, Nat, Clint, and Sam instead, just to be free of the obvious tension between Spider-Man and Tony.

 

After a while it went quiet again, and while that in itself wasn’t an issue, having Tony glare at Spider-Man every time he tried to incite a conversation to silence him made it all more forced- and Spider-Man- he wasn’t handling’s the silence very well either, and was constantly bouncing in his seat, making Stark all the more annoyed, which was making Steve even more stressed since the car ride still had an hour left, and there were already waves in the team with the solider trying to keep them at bay.

 

In all honesty, he didn’t understand why Tony had insisted on being with them. He understood that the billionaire felt some sort of responsibility towards the vigilante, seeing as he was the one to make him the advanced suit, and therefore the one who kickstarted Spidey’s superhero career, but their relationship was an odd one. 

 

They hardly seemed to talk to each other, yet when they did it was in a different way they interacted with the others, and it was hard to tell if that was because they were incredibly close, or extremely distant.

 

Spider-Man would often stick close to Stark, but his wording choices made it hard to decipher if he was angry or joking. Tony, on the other hand, seemed to avoid Spider-Man, hardly ever directing attention to the man, and attempting to distance himself whenever they were in a room- which was confusing to figure out if he was doing it purposely or subconsciously.

 

It was still very unclear as they rode in the car together in this awkward atmosphere, which was great for Steve.  _Really_  great.

 

Spider-Man’s attempts at conversation had been weak so far, but Steve was grateful he’d been trying before Tony silenced him. At one point Spidey was even desperate enough to draw attention to the sign “Road word ahead,” but Tony stopped him quicker than ever when he said those words.

 

Steve sighed and settled in a little more- at least he had the front seat, along with Rhodey, but the man was adamantly focused on driving, so he seemed to ignore the obvious tension in the car. It was worse than when Sam and Bucky were in a car together.

 

————————————————————————————————

 

“Alright class, I’ve just been informed that there are high-clearance guests in the building during the time of the tour, and at no point are we to make any sort of attempt to speak with them should we see them. No photos or videos of any sort are allowed either- the workers here were kind enough not to cancel our tour, so let’s please respect their wishes, does everyone understand?”

 

There was a course of ‘yes mam’ before the tour guide looked satisfied and led them into the building as Mr. Harrington checked over the kids to keep them in line.

 

Even though this was supposed to be a ‘small facility,’ it still was large and impressive enough to rival Stark Industries, and all the kids couldn’t help but gawk in wonder a bit as they looked around the sleek lobby filled with high-tech looking devices that were really just there for show.

 

The whole class was more than excited for the tour of the labs- the only person missing from the group was Peter, and even though Ned was aware he was probably doing something equally as awesome with the Avengers, it kinda sucked since he would’ve loved it here too.

 

————————————————————————————————

 

Ok, just to be clear, it really  _was_  super nice for Scott to think of including him, and Peter was really grateful for being able to go today. He might have missed out on a school field trip, but as much as he had fun with Ned and MJ, there was really no way he could say no to going with the Avengers to see one of Pym’s new buildings he had built locally- it was much smaller than the main place, but for having one purely to be closer to the Avengers compound incase of any world-ending emergency, it worked, and was still massive, pretty much crammed with advanced tech which had Peter freaking out over, like every five seconds.

 

That being said, the main reason they were there was because of some meeting-thing with Hank, who quite frankly still didn’t trust Tony or Cap, so it was mostly just Scott and Hope trying to make sure everything went smoothly with the Avengers. Key-word being  _Avengers_. Meaning Spidey wasn’t included in the meeting (not that he had wanted to go, since it seemed to be pretty awkward already), but that also meant that he was left to roam around on his own for a few hours, with relatively low-security clearance, so he couldn’t really go into the labs.

 

Mr. Stark had asked him not to leave in case he was needed, otherwise he would’ve webbed home a long time ago. He had briefly left to go get something from Starbucks a few minutes ago (they were making these cool Avenger-themed drinks right now, he had gotten the Iron Man one since it had caramel and was actually really good), though that had been a pretty awkward experience since he almost gave his real name when they asked, but other than that it seemed to go pretty smoothly, and he even stopped a bike theft on his way back, so it ended up being slightly productive at least.

 

————————————————————————————————

 

Alright so, getting caught up in something really cool like an Ant-Farming robot was completely understandable. But getting so caught up with it that you realize too late that you lost your classmates, teachers, and tour guide is still understandable, but not really a great circumstance to be in- which is where Ned currently found himself.

 

There was no helping it- he was completely lost now, and had pretty much given up any hope of being found by the school group. His best bet now was to make his way back to the entrance and hope not to be arrested for getting lost or something (was that something you could be arrested for?) oh  _god_ , he was gonna end up in jail, wasn’t he?

 

He had been quickening his pace in hopes of seeing his class, but every turn he made resulted in him being more utterly lost. He finally stopped short when he came out into an empty hallway that  _seemed_  public-looking- or at least the tour-guide level of public- so he after he spotted one of the couches lining the hallway walls, he decided to sit down for a minute and maybe wait until someone came along so he could ask for help.

 

————————————————————————————————

 

Ned had been scrolling through his phone for almost forty minutes now, being left alone to wait. No one had shown up yet- seriously. Not  _one_  soul- worker or tour-y person.

 

So naturally, he had started to panic about being forgotten here, or being found out by the staff- like what if it turned out he got himself into a super-secret area that was dangerous, and now they had to kill him or something?

 

Like  _sure_ , Peter could roam off on a field trip, and somehow get superpowers (ok, so he almost died, but  _still-_ at least he had a purpose for getting sidetracked) while the only thing Ned managed to get was super-lost. He had started humming softly to himself as he went through Tumblr, and was currently mumbling the lyrics to ’ _Sweet Caroline’_  by himself.

 

————————————————————————————————

 

Peter(Spidey) was let back in the building pretty easily, which was great cuz’ he had really started to freak out wondering if he would be let back in after his little break, so that was good at least. It would’ve been really embarrassing if he had ended up calling Mr. Stark to come to get him or something, and it would’ve just ended up feeling like a lost children’s desk situation.

 

The Avengers, however, were still in the meeting, and Peter was still bored as he walked down the halls with his mocha caramel frap, hardly another soul in sight, and when he did see someone, they just walked past him without a hello, which sorta hurt, but then again they were just doing their jobs, and he wasn’t the most popular superhero, so he tried not to take it personally.

 

He had almost done a full circle around the building and been on pretty much every accessible floor, so he had started to make his way over to where the Avengers were meeting when he heard someone singing to themselves quietly. He had kept it in his mind this whole time to keep his head down and not question anyone, but ‘ _Sweet Caroline’_  was such an iconic song, he honestly couldn’t just walk past it without joining in…

 

So he joined.

 

The person who had been singing it jumped up in surprise when he slid into their line of sight and started belting the lyrics, along with his best imitations of the instrumentals. In hindsight, it was probably frightening for him to jump out of nowhere, and the person had probably just been mumbling the lyrics and his enhanced hearing just picked up on them too much, making it seems like normal volume, but whatever, he had committed too much to singing it already, and he wasn’t about to back down now- plus Ned was pretty much used to this kind of shit by now, since his friend pulled the same amount of random shit, so he wasn’t surprised when Ned joined in with him again, but this time with louder volume.

 

He didn’t question why Ned was alone in a high-security building singing, and Ned didn’t question it as Peter came out of nowhere with Starbucks and fully dressed in his spider-suit to join in. They didn’t question it in the slightest, because honestly, that’s what their lives had come to at that point, and it would be taking a hell of a lot more time and effort if they stopped to question everything that happened.

 

————————————————————————————————

 

It was sort awkward, to be honest- I mean, they were the  _Avengers_ , and usually were used to some sort of reaction, but no one was entirely sure how to react to a student and Spider-Man singing along to a 70s song together, acting like they were BFF's.

 

And it wasn’t until this moment that everyone realized those two were missing in the first place- sure there’d been a few off-hand questions like ‘hey, did you see where they went?’ But there was always a half-hearted response to match it as they had gone to the bathroom or something else that no one had really believed, but also didn’t have the energy to question it.

 

So there was that.

 

And so they were all holding a staring contest with the Avengers facing a bunch of high-schoolers, but the odd scene of Ned and Spidey singing was still obscuring the full picture. It was pretty uncomfortable since neither group had any idea what to say, or if they should interrupt the two in the center who seemed oblivious. The school group wouldn’t make the first move since they were the  _freaking Avengers_ , and had been warned by the tour guide, and the Avengers didn’t seem all too eager to admit their relation with Spider-Man as he obliviously continued to belt out lyrics and his very best imitations of the instrumentals.

 

Finally, MJ spoke up, the only one brave enough to break this awkward world the two had seemed to drive themselves into.

 

“Hey Ned,” she opted not to call Spider-Man a ‘loser’ for now, even though it would be a total power move on her part and seemed to be fitting for him… for some reason. “You guy’s having fun?”

 

At the sound of her voice, both boys immediately stopped and looked up, noticing for the first time the newest additions to the room.

 

“…”

 

“…”

 

“…”

 

“ _Shit_ ,” Spidey finally whispered.

 

The class erupted into chaos, mostly caused by Flash angerly asking how Ned knows Spider-Man, while the poor tour guide looked terrified and guilty as she made her way up to Spider-Man and apologized profusely for the interruption, trying to pull Ned away, while Spidey tried to calm her down and convince her he was just having a nice conversation with ‘the kid’ and no one was bothered by it, until finally, Tony stalked up towards everyone, causing everyone to fall deathly quiet.

 

“Who would be the teacher here?” Tony demanded with authority, causing Mr. Harrington to shakily raises his hand. 

 

“That’d- that would be me, Mr. Stark.”

“Great. Can I speak with this student here for a moment? I’m afraid since he was here unsupervised during our meeting there’s safety measures and all that stuff.” He finished lazily waving his hand in explanation. “I’m sure there’s something about that in the forms you signed…?” The tour guide nodded her head in affirmation. “We’re all good then?”

 

“I-I suppose-“

 

“Alright, we’ll only be a few minutes, feel free to continue the tour in the meantime, I’ll make sure they catch up asap.”

 

“They? Are you taking someone el-“

 

“No- slip of the tongue- just him-“ Tony said pointing to Ned, “Spidey will stay with me afterward since we can’t have him crashing these kid’s trip more than he already has.”

 

Everyone ignored as Flash yelled out that he wouldn’t mind if Spider-Man joined them as Tony steered the two kids away from the whole mess towards the Avengers as the tour guide frantically tried to get everyone in order again.

 

————————————————————————————————

 

The Avengers, on the other hand, were much less vocal than the teens had been, but still just as surprised to see their friend with a random kid that he seemed quite comfortable with- then again, this  _was_  Spider-Man, and he had a pretty good reputation for making jokes and acting casual in even the most desperate situation, so it wasn’t as surprising as you might think.

 

It  _was_  surprising how lax the kid seemed to be, not even caring that he had been hanging out with Spider-Man. He was, however, seeming to freak out as he caught sight of the other Avengers, and almost looked like he was about to faint when  _the_ Iron Man came up to him.

 

Clint gave Tony a small glare of disapproval since he had clearly scared the kid, who was probably already afraid of being in trouble after getting lost, and Spider-Man had probably only been trying to cheer him up a bit (like the good father he was), and most definitely of all, the kid probably hadn’t been spying on them, so interrogating him was incredibly unfair.

 

As the billionaire came to pass by them, Clint moved to stop him, but Steve was quicker.

 

“Tony.” Steve placed a hand on his shoulder to stop the man, “the kid didn’t do anything wrong, let’s just end this ok? We don’t need to stress him out.”

 

Clint glanced over at the kid, who was now in the middle of the actual Avengers, and looking like he was about to have a heart-attack- this was definitely not a great place to stop and chat, even if it was in the kid’s defense. Lucky for him, none of the Avengers besides Clint seemed to be paying the teen any attention, as they’re eyes were focused on either the billionaire or the remains class who were leaving as some of them shyly waved and excitedly turned to their friends to talk as they exited. He turned back to see the kid silently mouth to Spider-Man ‘ _how do you do this every day?’_  As Spider-Man just responded with a subtle ‘ _shut up_ ’ gesture.

 

No one else had seemed to pick up on the small interaction, but it had raised many questions in Hawkeye’s mind- it was beginning to become clear that Spider-Man possibly had a connection to the kid.

 

But why would Spider-Man have a connection to a random kid unless…

 

“The kid doesn’t mind,” Tony defended. “Besides, it’s just normal security measures- I’m sure it’ll be a blast to have the Avengers instead of a normal security guard.”

 

Tony sounded too casual- casual to the point it was clear he was stressed. And it Tony was stressed, then there was more to the story then it appeared, and since he was taking Spider-Man along, it was also evident this had something to do with the man.

 

He wracked his brain trying to remember the name of Spider-Man’s kid, the one he heard that night when the man was on the phone… It was Ned, right? Or was it Ted? No, he was almost certain it was Ned.

 

As Steve and Tony continued their quiet argument, Clint silently walked up to the kid standing beside Spider-Man, with them very much mirroring the image of an angry father and an anxious son, as Spider-Man stood still with his arms crossed and head down, and the kid was still looking panicked, but still gravitated towards his father- sorry  _Spider-Man_ \- as a source of comfort when surrounded by strangers.

 

“Hey kid,” Clint greeted, causing both possible father-and-son to look up at him. The kid pointed at himself.

 

“Yo-you mean me?”

 

Clint laughed.

 

“Who else would l be calling kid? Spider-Man?”

The kid actually laughed at this (probably way more than it was worth, but that was most likely just nerves) causing Spider-Man to nudge him playfully in a warning. Yeah, the dad thing suited Spidey.

 

“I’m Clint. I know you probably know that, but it’s best not to just assume. What’s your name?”

 

“Uh, I’m Ned, Ned Leeds Mr. Hawkeye.”

 

_Well._

 

_What the fuck do I do now?_

 

Clint wasn’t panicking. Noooope. Not at all- it wasn’t like he had just met Spider-Man’s son, explaining why Tony was freaking out and tried to calmly handle the situation without drawing too much attention. It wasn’t like he had just found out Spider-Man’s last name. It wasn’t like he had just intentionally-unintentionally found out one of the reasons that Spider-Man was hiding his identity in the first place- but more than that, it wasn’t like he immediately wanted to adopt Ned as his nephew and protect him, and get to know him, and arrange for Ned to watch his kids when he and Laura wanted to go out for a night, and they needed a babysitter, and of course he would pay, he’d also hide a few extra bills in there so that Ned wouldn’t notice until he got home since he doesn’t look like the kind of kid to double-check he got paid the right amount of money right away, but he would probably call Clint as soon as he realized, and Clint would be all like ‘it’s just a little extra gift from uncle Clint, just don’t tell your dad’ and Ned would be like ‘that’s so cool! Thank you so much, you’re a great uncle!’ And-

 

“Uh, Clint? You ok?” Spider-Man’s voice broke him out of his imagination that he would soon make a reality.

 

“Ned,” Clint placed both his hands on the kid’s shoulders, probably scaring him with the intensity.

 

“Um, how can I help you?”

“I need someone to watch my kids next Monday- can you do it?”

 

If any of the Avengers hadn’t been interested in the conversation, they were now. The silence seemed to echo as everyone turned their attention away from Tony and Cap’s previous conversation, and onto the conversation between Clint and the kid- even Tony and Steve went silent.

 

“Um, I didn’t know you had uh- I’m don’t think I can- I um…” Ned looked helplessly to Spider-Man like a lost kid. Spider-Man did nothing to help his whole dad-case by firmly stating: “He can’t, it’s a school night.”

 

“Right… I didn’t even think of that, sorry man.” 

 

Everyone was still in a slight amount of shock, so Tony took that as an opening to drag the father and son away to talk to them privately.

 

They all waited until the trio was out of earshot before questioning Clint.

 

“Clint, what _the fuck_? You just tell a random teen that you have kids?” Sam asked in frustration.

 

“And ask him to babysit them?” Steve added.

 

Clint was debating if he should take his hearing aids out when Natasha cut in.

 

“Comm'n guys, it was obvious who that was.”

 

“Who?” Wanda asked, purely curious.

 

“Spider-Man’s son.”

 

————————————————————————————————

 

Tony closed the door after they entered the room, locking it for good measure before turning around to face the two incredibly idiotic geniuses.

 

“So which one of you decided to host a karaoke party in a highly-secure science facility?”

 

When neither of them responded, he continued, turning to Peter. “So you just decided to call your buddy, tell him to ditch his class, who was apparently visiting the same place as we were, so you two could hang out, and you didn’t tell me this why?”

 

“I didn’t know!”

 

“Ok, so, that still doesn’t explain how you  _did_  find out and called him here so you could sing the greatest seventies hits together for us all, and- why is your mask still on?”

 

“What if there’s cameras in here or something?”

 

“He’s just lazy,” Ned added in helpfully, and Tony just waved it off. He needed to take this one confusing thing at a time.

 

“Alright, whatever- so you both just randomly found each other, and thought ‘hey, let’s just sing until someone finds us! That won’t possibly put my identity at risk?’”

 

“He was already singing when I found him,” Peter explained, pointing to Ned.

 

“And I was just lost, I had literally no clue he was here, but like, when I saw him it sorta made sense I guess, and I just forgot that he was in his spider-suit, cuz he seriously wears it all the time, so I didn’t really notice it wasn’t technically Peter until Flash was freaking out and stuff.”

 

“Ok, fine, whatever,  _it’s fine_. You can’t ever do stupid shit like that again, I _swear_. And why was Clint asking you to babysit?”

 

“I have literally no idea,” Ned responded in clear honesty, and Peter added “he was probably just trying to make Ned feel comfortable,” without any doubt in his voice, so for once Tony decided to drop the subject.

 

“Alright, I’ll get one of the others to escort Ned back, and Pete, if something like this ever happens again, I’m disabling Karen for two weeks- I’m saying this in front of your friend because if he ever hacks another suit again-“

 

“Understood Mr. Stark,” Both boys quickly responded. Tony nodded and opened the door for both of them to exit, and they walked quickly through the hallways until they were back with the other Avengers.

 

“Alright, we’ve talked it out, and it’s all good,” Tony explained upon reentering the group. “I need a volunteer to take Ned here back to his-“

 

“I’ll go,” Clint cut in first, quickly followed by a chorus of pretty much all the other Avengers offering to go instead, while Ned tried to restrain his grin as the freaking  _Avengers_  fought over who would take him.

 

“Alright, enough!” Tony raised his voice over the chaos. “Wanda, Nat, you’re the calmest, so you take him back.” The two women nodded, and an incredibly excited Ned walked off with them, after giving a small wave good-bye to the others.

 

“Visit us soon!” Clint called, earning a smack from Sam. “What? I’m just being friendly…”

 

————————————————————————————————

 

That was… weirder than Peter was willing to admit.

 

He was incredibly surprised at how the Avengers had like, immediately taken to Ned- it was pretty impossible not to like him- but it was different this time, and they weren’t just acting for the sake of their public image either, it seemed that they all just inexplicably liked Ned. It was really random.

 

Peter was, of course, glad that they liked him, but it also made him a bit sad, since he didn’t get even half that reaction when he had met them as Peter Parker- he was pretty sure none of them even remembered his name- well, maybe Rhodey did, but that was most definitely  _not_  for the reasons he’d want to be remembered, and not only had they instantly remembered Ned’s name, they acted like they had all just adopted him… in retrospect, he was actually really glad he never told the Avengers his real age, since after seeing the way they acted with Ned, he’d probably have a handful of superheroes babying him all the time instead of treating him like a valid member of the team that could hold his own.

 

He silently laughed to himself as he remembered how excited Ned was meeting everyone- he’d have to ask Mr. Stark if Ned could sleepover one night- Ned would probably die from happiness.

 

————————————————————————————————

 

The Avengers now knew almost for a certainty that Spidey had a son.

 

They had now met his son.

 

His son was a teen, and his last name was Leeds, which gave an age group and name for everyone to work with, along with possible physical traits- which of course, everyone silently agreed they wouldn’t look him up, but it was almost unnerving to find out so much about someone who didn’t want you to know anything about themselves. 

 

But it was nice to more or less know that Spider-Man was attempting to keep secrets for the benefit of those he cared about, and it was almost funny how terrible he was at keeping his identity hidden- if only slightly concerning.

 

(Rhodey still didn’t buy all this after meeting Peter, but he still had his doubts about the less-than-graceful teen as well)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much again!! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter!!!
> 
> So some of you said you'd be interested in reading my O/W, and I haven't really figured out wattpad yet, so I posted it here first, and I might continue it if you guys actually like it???
> 
> Anywaysss, it'd mean a lot if you checked it out, but like, no pressure, cuz u are here for fanfics (mostly) after all amiright? Here's the link if your interested tho https://archiveofourown.org/works/20118538/chapters/47660464


	9. you are my daaaad, yOR MY DAD (boogie woogie woogie)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter, Ned, school assemblies, and general misunderstandings- all in a day's work for the friendly superheroes of New York.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to give credit to 'Orpheus I Dont Feel So Good' (I seriously love ur name, I laugh every time) for the last chapter, so THANK YOU FOR THE IDEA!!!<3333
> 
> Also some credit again for 'Drabblewritingbitch' for this chapter- Thank you!<3333
> 
> Also it's August 10- SPIDER-MAN FIRST APPEARED TODAY BACK IN 1961, AND I'M SO GLAD HE'S AROUND!!!! CONGRATS TO MY FAVOURITE HERO!!!!! I'd do the math to see how old he is, but I'm tired, I suck at math, and it's currently 11:49 pm, so I really gotta post this.
> 
> As always, I hope you enjoy, and thank you so much for all your support!!!

 

 

 

Peter blamed Steve’s PSA’s for starting it all, the moment he came to the gym doors that morning.

 

———————————————————————————

 

_‘Having good influence on the younger generation is important’,_ or at least that’s what Steve had been trying to convince the other Avengers of.

 

I mean, it _is_ important, they all thought that, but the way Steve was suggesting to display a ‘positive influence’ wasn’t a way they all agreed on…

 

Sure Pepper had been the one to bring up the idea for visiting schools, and Rhodey may have been the one to relay that message, but the one who was putting forth the most effort to make it a reality was Steve- apparently he had been inspired by all those times Spider-Man would randomly start inspirational speeches- and yes, the others had noticed the vigilante's strange hobby as well, even if It had started small, unnoticeable… but Spider-Man had been randomly bringing up random issues coupled with inspirational quotes, and it was started to get out of hand.

 

The more curious part was that it had almost always been happening when Steve came into the room.

 

He’d just walk in and Spider-Man would automatically start talking about ‘good hobbies for a young mind’, or ‘the cautions of drinking’. it sounded like he had been reading some sort of patriotic parenting book, and every few minutes he would spout out a new verse, which was starting to get really annoying, since most of the time these small sessions didn’t even have relevant topics for any of the Avengers, none of them were teens, and only one of them (other than Spidey himself) were raising teenagers… and even then, Clint wasn’t always around for those talks. 

 

Probably one of the worst things about it was that once he had started, you couldn’t stop the speech, nor could you converse with him until he was done. He used to stop when they asked, but now he refused to stop and stared them straight in their eyes as he continued. It was starting to get frustrating since he seemed to have one for every. Fucking. Subject.

 

They could say something like “Hey have you seen where the scissors are?” And Spider-Man would appear from thin air and start giving you a lecture on using the ‘proper safety procedures when handling dangerous equipment” and just, the Avengers didn’t know what to do at this point. They were close to becoming broken, and surrendering all hope of ever saving their Spider friend from this endless hole of inspirational speeches.

 

Anyway, the way that the super-soldier was now presenting himself was incredibly similar to the Spider’s display during those speeches, but no one brought this to light, and instead allowed Steve to continue on his efforts to rally the others, even though most of them had already agreed to it. 

 

But after the run-in with the school group at Pym’s lab, Steve brought up the great idea of starting their visits at the school they had interrupted, as sort of an apology (it was an excuse to see Ned again in reality).

 

The only ones still skeptical were Tony, Sam, Spidey, and Natasha.

 

Tony didn’t want to be mocked, Sam thought there were better ways to do it, and while Natasha did love children, she felt uncomfortable on how they might come across more as authority figures than as protectors or role models- and since Spider-Man wasn’t an Avenger, they didn’t try to push him to participate, especially since he had a kid in school among the age groups they would be speaking in, and while they couldn’t say for sure if they would speak to his class, they understood the need to take as few risks as possible.

 

But in the end, Steve managed to convince all the others to join- after all, what was the worst that could happen? And if they were together then they could better arrange how they would be best viewed in public, and eventually Steve explained how it would be best for all of them to choose a sort of character they would like to display to the youth of America, preferably a more friendly one then they were portrayed as in the news. 

 

After all, Steve was a professional when it came to the youth of America, even if the others didn’t know it.

 

As much as the others just wanted to go in casually and be themselves, Steve was convinced it would go much smoother if they all used a persona to be able to relate to the youths better. 

 

And so, after several meetings, and various ‘training sessions,’ the Avengers found themselves waiting in a principle's office on a Friday morning, watching through the windows as the kids were told to go into the gym for an assembly. This was their first school visit, and so they wanted to be able to make a surprise entrance.

 

Steve had dressed up a bit for the occasion, wearing the more traditional version of his uniform, but for the most part, the rest of them were dressed normally, except for Vision.

 

Finally, they were given notice that most of the kids were seated in the gym, and they were directed to the room. The hallways were empty as they caught sight of the doors up ahead. Suddenly a young boy ran out from the opposite end of the hallway, clearly in a rush, looking down at his phone as he skidded to a stop in front of the gym entrance, but more significantly in front of the Avengers themselves. He half-glanced up at them before he raised his hands to open the gym doors- then he paused, and slowly rose his head toward the team of superheroes again, looking stunned as his mouth dropped open a bit.

 

“Uhm…”

 

He seemed to be a very eloquent speaker by the sound of it- then again, they were the _Avengers_ , so they really had no place to judge. The kid stood in shock for a few for seconds, his eyes darting between them, looking very much like a deer caught in headlights, until he finally seemed to give up, and turned back the way he had come murmuring “fuck this shit, I’m out,” leaving the group slightly stunned, and left to look at each other uncomfortably for a few moments before heading into the auditorium (even though Tony looked like he wanted to go and drag the ‘rebel kid’ back inside).

 

———————————————————————————

 

The school burst into applause and chaos the moment the students realized that the real Avengers had just shown up, and the team smiled and waved up at the stands, as Principle Morris began his opening speech to interduce them.

 

———————————————————————————

 

Yeah, ok, so Peter could’ve dealt with that a little better, but the moment he looked up to see his friends staring at him with absolutely no recognition in their eyes, he panicked, and followed his simple rules for when he was panicked and was literally just repeating _‘come on Spidey think’_ over and over in his head, as if by calling on the superhero side of himself consistently, he would be saved too. 

 

And so he was saved, but he saved himself by using Spider-Man’s method of either making a joke or quoting vines, so he chose the latter, which ultimately ended pretty horribly, so _thanks Spidey_.

 

At least it was better than staying there, and had Mr. Stark been there? He was pretty sure he had been, so if he’d stayed, he would’ve had to deal with ‘ _this is my intern, remember? You already met him several times now, but you have to reintroduce yourself every time, since you never remember his name,’_ and cue the awkward re-introductions. 

 

It wasn’t like he expected them to remember his name- they had no reason to- just it couldn’t help but hurt when your friends acted like they had amnesia around you. He knew it was his own fault for choosing to have a secret identity, and he definitely wasn’t ready to give that up yet, so it was fine, but it was also something he wasn’t expecting to face at school today, which led to him overreacting, which meant now he was out in the hallway, while pretty much the whole school were doing something with the Avengers…

 

But it wasn’t like he could just hide out in the hallway until it was over since he actually wanted to see it too, truth be told (he was still a fanboy at heart), but he also didn’t want to get in trouble if any teachers saw him. Though, against all these reasons to go in, there were other reasons why he pretty much shouldn’t go in.

 

He was pretty late, so that meant everyone would see him walk in and look for a seat, which was not alright, the Avengers would see a punky-ass scrawny white kid who just bad-mouthed them come in, and with Sam’s sense of humour, and Steve’s sense of justice, if there was a time in their speech that they needed a volunteer, you can fucking bet they would take the opportunity to choose a kid who seemed to think he was too good for the damn Avengers.

 

Either way he swung, he’d most likely be damned anyways- another great example of living with the stupid Parker luck.

 

He finally decided to choose the option that would result in the least amount of trouble, and just go in the gym, since if he got detention again May would be beyond disappointed, and quite frankly, he’d rather risk the Avengers anger then risk his aunt’s.

 

————————————————

 

So, Peter was stuck between options and being in a rush to decide never really makes for a good decision, and I think we’ve already clarified that he hardly ever makes wise decisions even though he’s a genius.

 

So when he first thought of it, it seemed like a brilliant solution, since not only would he get into the auditorium, meaning he wouldn’t be out of the loop and miss out on the Avengers being at his school, but he also wouldn’t come in a way that would draw needless attention to Peter Parker- neither the school’s attention, nor the Avengers.

 

He did fully grasp how stupid the idea was once he had it in motion, but it was too late now, and he didn’t want detention.

 

There was no backing out now.

 

———————————————————————————

 

Steve had taken centre stage to start everyone off since he seemed to know what he was doing, and the others weren’t entirely eager to be the first to speak.

 

He seemed to be a natural by the sounds of it, though it almost sounded like he had based his script off of one of Spider-Man’s random speeches.

 

It was only past nine in the morning, but still, most of the team found themselves tired after being up early to go over their speeches and get ready for the long drive into the city.

 

So most of them zoned out as Steve carried on with his starting speech, waiting for their cues. They’d gone over it so many times already, that they could pretty much recite it all without batting an eye.

 

So while most of them were tuned out at this point, they were suddenly snapped back to reality as they heard sudden cheering- which was odd considering that Steve hardly had any clappable moments in his safety instructions.

 

They looked up to see the one and only Spider-Man standing at front of the audience waving cheerfully, only stopping to turn back to the Avengers and wink at them.

 

“That little shit...” Sam murmured.

 

“Hey, guys! Hi heard you were in the area and decided to swing by!” He called excitedly, with just a hint of assholery in his voice that he always used when he made his quips while fighting to let the Avengers know that yes, he knew he was annoying them, and yes, he meant to be doing it.

 

Their facial expressions must’ve been a sight to see for the students as they stared in pure shock as the vigilante took centre stage.

 

———————————————————————————

 

Peter didn’t think this through.

 

He knew that, but it became clear to him as he stood with everyone’s attention on him with absolutely no plan.

 

He had no clue what to do as the crowd’s noise died down and waited for him to speak. Without turning around he knew the Avengers had gone silent behind him, and the last thing he wanted to do was look at where the superheroes were staring at him.

 

He felt like he was stuck between being Peter and Spidey at the moment, and was physically caught between his schoolmates and his friends who knew nothing about him.

 

His mind was running a mile a minute as the awkward silence went on pretty much forever, even if in reality it was only a few seconds.

 

Finally making his decision, Spidey decided to step up.

 

“I had heard the Avengers would be here and came in to say hi to everyone here- I owe ya’ all after Washington.”

 

Another round of applause. He was doing pretty ok.

 

“I mean, I’m super sorry to interrupt you-“ he turned back quickly to spare a glance at the Avengers, which he deeply regretted cuz they were the freakin Avengers, and oh god what was he doing?

 

“-Yeah, sorry to interrupt Cap, but you guys already know I’m a big fan, right? Um, but I had to help the kids before they had nightmares of the PSA’s, amiright?”

 

Laughter ensued.

 

Shitshitshitshit. Shit.

 

Why did he say that?

 

He now fully turned around and saw Steve looking at him betrayed. 

 

“Ummmm, so like, what’re we talking about anyway- hey!” He turned to see who had grabbed his arm.

 

“Uh, hi Mr. Stark.”

 

The billionaire was glaring at him dangerously as he pulled him back in line with the rest of them and motioned for Steve to continue, but kept one hand firmly on Peter’s shoulder. 

 

Yep, this was a horrible idea.

 

He looked up in the bleachers and caught sight of Ned who was smiling widely, sending him a quick thumbs-up when they made eye contact, which he returned quickly before he felt Mr. Stark’s glare on him and quickly snapped his hand back to his side.

 

He felt slightly ridiculous standing in front of everyone with Mr. Stark holding him down like a parent preventing their child from escaping embarrassment as Steve just went off to give everyone more meme-worthy material, which Peter would never understand why he agreed to it in the first place, but whatever. He was even wearing his original suit, and it was cringey.

 

But then again, he was the guy in blue and red spandex, so he didn’t really have any rights to complain about costume choices, especially since this is what he _actually_ wore on missions, while Steve at least had a real suit in darker tones.

 

After Steve finished, he was followed by Natasha on self-defense, Vision on Internet safety, Sam and Tony on mental health, Wanda on volunteering, and Sam with responsibility. 

 

Not that he heard any of it since he was pretty much in constant panic. He was vaguely aware when he felt his mentor leave his side to say his part since the billionaire had had his hand on Peter’s shoulder nearly the whole time.

 

Finally, Sam said the final lines, and applause was heard as Peter finally snapped back to reality.

 

Principal Morris came on to speak and thanked the Avengers for coming.

 

“And now, the Avengers have very kindly agreed to stay for a Q&A session, so those of you who have questions, please form a line along the west wall, it’ll be-“

 

Peter didn’t pay attention to the rest of the instructions since he had gotten lost at the whole Q&A thing...

 

_They were doing_ what _now?_

 

He watched in horror as a microphone appeared and students lined up to speak.

 

Why did he always manage to dig himself further into a bad situation making it a terrible one? It would’ve been so much better if he just sucked it up and gone in as himself, or suffered detention even.

 

————————————————

 

The first question was for Spider-Man. Of course, it was.

 

The spider in question walked up to the podium, glancing behind at the Avengers a few times obviously enjoying the fact he’d been picked over them (particularly Tony since he kept turning towards the billionaire as if boasting).

 

“Uh hey, what's up?”

 

The blond girl standing at the front looked nervous, but seemed to gain control of herself and spoke professionally as if she was a news reporter.

 

“Hi Spider-Man, I’m like, ok so first off I wanted to thank you for saving the decathlon team in Washington last year, and I wanted to ask how you knew we were there, and what you were doing there in the first place?”

 

“Uhh, I was sorta doing superhero stuff? I can’t really tell you the details of course, but then I just saw people in the monument in danger, and jumped in, y’ know?”

 

Steve overheard Clint mutter _‘Washington monument?’_ In confusion. It seemed like Steve wasn’t the only one confused- sometimes it was easy to forget how much Spidey actually did for people.

 

The girl nodded and thanked him for his answer as the next kid came up.

 

“Hey Spidey, you probably remember me, I was one of the people you saved in Washington.”

 

“Yeah, the one with the trophy,” the man cut in dryly.

 

“Yes! Omigod- um so, as your biggest fan, I just needed to- know are you an Avenger officially now?”

 

“Practically, yes,” Spidey responded to the surprise of all the Avengers who had been convinced that the man had no interest in the position- other than Tony, who quickly pulled Spider-Man back so he could speak into the microphone himself, answering, “no, he is not an Avenger,” resulting in laughter around the room. The Avengers found it hard not to grin themselves seeing the way Tony and Spidey interacted, though most of them found their attention being drawn to one kid in the stands who seemed to be laughing the hardest of all- Spider-Man’s own son.

 

It was sweet that he was laughing rather than being embarrassed by his father’s antics, and they really got the sense of how close they were, almost more like friends.

 

Thankfully after that, there were numerous questions for the actual Avengers, leaving all of them in the spotlight along with the spider, until they were done with the questions, and we're hanging around to wave at the kids as they made their way out to class.

 

As the last of the kids were making their way out, Clint saw the familiar kid whose face was probably committed to the memory of all the Avengers and waved at him in welcome- leaving the kid to look incredibly stunned and shockingly return the wave.

 

Clint began to walk up, by time he almost reached Ned the other Avengers had also picked up on his presence and started walking towards them also, leaving Spidey behind to awkwardly wonder if he should join them or risk revealing anything about his identity. Apparently thinking the better if it all, he finally joined the others who were already surrounding his shook son. 

 

Clint smiled widely as the kid approached nervously.

 

“Hey kid- your Ned, right?”

 

Ned, apparently unable to craft any words, just nodded his head in affirmation.

 

“You remember him?” Spider-Man asked in a voice that was touched but weary.

 

“Course’ we remember him,” Natasha said with a welcoming smile towards Ned. “It’s not often we find a random teenager dancing with you in a hallway.”

 

“Fair point,” Spidey admitted as Ned’s face went from one of amazement to one of horror in less than five seconds.

 

Wanda laughed at his expression as Sam gave him a soft punch on his arm.

 

“We’re headed back to the compound now-” Steve started.

 

“R-right, of course, sir, it was so amazing to talk to everyone-“

 

“Hold on, I wasn’t done,” Steve said, holding up his hands to pause Ned.

 

“Omigod, I’m so sorry sir.”

 

“It isn’t a problem kid, but we were wondering if you’d be interested in coming over to the compound to visit- with permission from your parents of course.” He pointedly glanced at Spider-Man, but when he didn’t respond, Steve looked back again at Ned, his jaw dropped, looking with wide eyes at Steve first, then at Spidey, and pointed at Steve as if asking.

 

“I’m pretty sure he has school,” Spider-Man interrupted. “And um, I need to get back to... work.”

 

“Well, what about after?” Wanda compromised.

 

“I need to ask my parents first, but I’ll um, I’m pretty sure I can,” Ned said in nervous excitement.

 

“Right then,” Tony clapped. “Spidey, lemme know what’s happening and I’ll send a car for you and Ned later.”

 

There was a beat of silence before the billionaire lazily added: “y’ know, since your local, you can just come back here when school’s over.”

 

_Very smooth Tony, very smooth._

 

————————————————

 

Ned’s parents agreed to it pretty easily since Peter did work there after all.

 

He couldn’t tame his excitement as he saw the usual black Audi in the school parking lot, the one reserved only for Peter, but this time he was invited too.

 

He waited a few minutes for Peter to show up first, since his friends decided to change into his suit first, meaning he ran a few blocks away from the school to avoid any suspicions and had just texted that he was on the way back.

 

He looked up just as Spidey landed beside him, causing Ned to jump a little in surprise- no matter how long he had powers, Ned would probably never get used to the fact that the superhero swinging around Queens was his previously weak friend, who used to have asthma attacks and wear glasses- which quite frankly resulted in him being terrible at gym- and now he could run and flip without problems.

 

“Hey,” he said through the mask, slightly out of breath from swinging all the way there. “You ready?”

 

“Dude, I’m going to hang out with the Avengers, I don’t think anything I do will ever make me ‘ready.’”

 

“Fair point.” he opened one of the doors and got in as Ned went to the other side and went inside.

 

“Hey Happy,” Peter called to the driver who grumbled in response as Ned copied Peter in saying hello, and soon the divider went up as Peter took off his mask.

 

“So am I the only one who finds this whole thing weird?” Peter finally asked.

 

“Definitely not the only one who thinks it’s weird, but the only one willing to question it,” Ned replied happily.

 

————————————————

 

The Avengers were at the compound awaiting the arrival of the supposed father-son duo, stumbling over each other to get into natural positions as soon as they got the heads up that the two had arrived, as Tony only watched over them in amusement.

 

“How come you’re acting more like the nervous teen about to meet their hero’s than the actual person in question probably is?” He questioned.

 

“I just wanna prove that I’m better with kids then Clint,” Sam yelled from where he was currently preparing an unhealthy amount of candy to choose from.

 

“I’m an actual father, you cannot beat me,” the archer called confidently from where he was seated on the couch.

 

The elevator doors suddenly opened to reveal the two everyone had been waiting for (no one was going to mention how cute it was that Spider-Man decided to take the elevator up with his son rather than entering via the window), smiling in welcome to Ned who was staring wide-eyed at the whole situation. None of them missed how Spider-Man gave him an encouraging nudge forward into the room.

 

“He-hey, um, thank you for inviting me here,” Ned finally fumbled out nervously.

 

“We’re glad to have you here Ned,” Sam said walking up with some candy to offer, which Ned gladly took, after quickly thanking him.

 

Soon Clint came up and started talking to Ned, eventually leading to the poor kid being surrounded as they all tried to welcome him. Tony stepped up to Spidey silently and gave him a quick half-hug. “Getting jealous Underoos?”

 

“No-Nah, I’m happy for Ned actually, he deserves it… I’m just sorta confused with it. They just saw him and decided to practically adopt him? Not that I’m complaining, he really is great, so I see why they like him- obviously- but it just seems really… random?”

 

“Yeah, I can’t argue with you there…”

 

————————————————

 

They were all relaxing in the living room now, watching a movie with Spider-Man and his son.

 

Ned had a very similar sense of humour as his father, often saying very random things, so even though they were still unsure how to react to these jokes, they had become very used to them, and could definitely see that these two were related, so everything felt comfortable, and went pretty smoothly.

 

It was only until they were halfway through _The Sound of Music_ that things started to take a turn.

 

Spider-Man had recently left to make himself hot chocolate and had just resumed with a steaming mug in his hands. After waiting a few minutes for it to cool, he took a sip from it, lost in his thoughts about how the night had been going so far. He was more then glad that they all ended up liking Ned so much, even if it was admittedly a little strange, but hey, life was strange, and a few years ago he never would’ve guessed he would have freaking superpowers and be sitting in a room comfortably with his best friends, most of which consisted of the Avengers.

 

This resulted in him getting lost in his thoughts momentarily, unfortunately, however, it was long enough for him to not realize that his mask was still covering his mouth as he tried to drink from his mug, and since it didn’t exactly click as to why there was a subdued amount of liquid coming out, he distractedly turned the cup up all the way, only realizing his mistake far too late- meaning he only realized when he was covered in the drink, though thankfully it was mostly his mask that had taken the brunt of it, which would hopefully be an easy fix.

 

Ned was attempting to stifle his laughter beside him as Peter began to tear off his mask from the discomfort of his face being covered in warm chocolatey stuff. 

 

He had almost gotten the mask off when he suddenly felt as he was pushed to the floor and darkness consume him.

 

“Uhm…”

 

There was slight shuffling under the blanket as Peter sat up (or tried to) in confusion as the Avengers stared at the now cloaked superhero.

 

“Oh. _Oh_ … Um, I’m just gonna head out now…” he muttered, his voice slightly muffled by the blanket covering his head. 

 

The second figure in the blanket attempted to sit up, but Peter pushed him down whisper-yelling _‘you need to wait till I’m gone Ned’,_ before standing up and making his exit in a ghost-like fashion, leaving Ned exposed still laying on the floor, closing his eyes.

 

“Did… did he just… take off his mask?” Sam questioned skeptically.

 

Tony sighed tiredly. “You mean after he spilt hot chocolate all over himself? Yes, he did.”

 

Wanda stifled a laugh. “That would’ve been a pretty unlikely way to meet him for the first time,” she commented.

 

“Yeah no kidding- Stark, you couldn’t have let it go this once?” Steve joked.

 

“I wouldn’t have noticed either if Ned hadn’t jumped in,” the billionaire deflected. “He has incredibly quick reflexes considering his lack of powers. You can probably get up now by the way kid.”

 

“Well, I have gotten pretty used to stopping him from doing stupid things,” Ned admitted freely before quickly realizing his mistake as the Avengers looked at him in question. “Oh _shit,_ I shouldn’t have said that, shitshitshit he’s gonna kill me.”

 

“Don’t worry Ned,” Clint jumped up to kneel beside the kid in a calming attempt. “It was nothing we didn’t already know- we’re the Avengers, remember? We figured it out when we saw you at Pym’s lab- also we all know how bad Spidey is at keeping secrets.”

 

Ned looked relieved, if only slightly confused. “But I thought you didn’t know who he was?”

 

“Well, we don’t- we haven’t seen his face that is- but we’re all aware of your relationship to him.”

 

“You-you know that we’re-“

 

“Father and son, yes.”

 

The only sound that could be heard was Tony as he started coughing from surprise, while Ned went quiet for a second. “I’m sorry, did you just- you said you knew that we- that we were-“

 

“You're his son? It’s ok Ned, we’re all aware of it.”

 

“Does he- does um, does dad know?”

 

“No, he still thinks he’s the most secretive person around.”

 

“R-right. Wow, I can’t believe you um, I need to go get some air…” Ned excused himself with Tony following him close behind as the others looked at each other wondering if they should’ve let it drop that they were aware of it.

 

————————————————

 

Tony _swore_ the kid was going to kill him.

 

First, he dumped a whole freaking cup of hot chocolate on his head without noticing, then he proceeded to try and rip the mask off in front of the entire team of Avengers, which was really sweet of him. If it wasn’t for his friend shoving him to the ground suddenly, Tony wouldn’t have noticed until the rest of the Avengers, and it would’ve been too late.

 

As soon as he saw Peter go down and realized what happened, he quickly threw a blanket over the boy’s before anyone could so much as taking notice of his hair colour.

 

It was hard enough not to laugh at the situation as it was, but then the Avengers had assumed Ned was Peter’s son…

 

And then the fucking kid just decided to _go along with it_ for whatever reason, probably one being that he was afraid to disagree with the Avenger while simultaneously wanting to keep Peter’s identity a secret, so he just called Peter dad, and left the room, with the billionaire quickly making his exit alongside Ned.

 

————————————————

 

Peter was getting changed out of his suit into more comfortable clothing. He’d have to wash the suit and check for any damage before wearing it again, and since he didn’t feel like doing that right now, he decided to just be himself for the rest of the night, and avoid the Avengers til later. He just finished throwing his spider-suit in the corner of his room, when he heard hysterical laughter coming from the hallway, that sounded very much like Ned and Mr. Stark, and upon entering the hallway, he discovered that his guess was correct.

 

The laughter only increased when they saw Peter and began talking over each other in what seemed to be a poor imitation of the English language. He was guessing it wouldn’t be completely off the mark to guess they were laughing at his most recent episode of idiocy, so he stood it what he hoped was an intimidating pose, though, on second thought, it probably looked way too thought out since they started to laugh even harder when he did this.

 

“Ok, _dude_ , you’re never gonna guess what happened,” Ned finally chocked out as Tony regained most of his composure, but was still fighting the urge to laugh.

 

“I spilled hot chocolate on myself and just fucking ripped the mask off?” Peter responded tiredly.

 

“Ok, first off _yes,_ but honestly compared to the time you just climbed up the school wall and I had to wrestle you down, this was nothing, but did you know-”

 

“-Wait, he did _what?_ ” Mr. Stark interrupted.

 

“He just started _climbing the walls_ as we were talking! I honestly don’t know how he hid it for so long- anyway, they’ve pretty much guessed how we know each other, so the gigs up… sorry, Peter.”

 

“ _What?_ Mr. Stark whatdowedo? I’m not ready to face them yet, I-I can’t-“

 

“-Peter _chill out,_ it’s fine, they only found out your my dad after all.”

 

“No Ned, you don’t get it, if they know that we’re… My… my son?”

 

“Yeah, why didn’t you tell me about this Underoos?” Tony interrupted. “I’ve known you longer than them, and you couldn’t even tell me you had a son face-to-face? I’m hurt. Still, though, I’m happy for you- would’ve preferred a girl myself, but congrats.”

 

“Omigod, does this mean I’m Iron Man’s grandson?”

 

“What? No,” Peter responded quickly as Tony said “probably.”

 

“Waitwaitwait- you _told_ them I was your dad?”

 

“Nah, they figured that out on their own… somehow.”

 

“I’m not your dad Ned.”

 

“I mean like, do we know that for a fact?”

 

“We could do a DNA test,” Tony suggested.

 

“Don’t worry, I know _your_ not my dad Peter…”

 

“Thank you for that obvious point, Ned.”

 

“Of course- we all know Spider-Man’s my dad after all.”

 

Peter couldn’t believe his life had come to a point where his mentor- the great _Tony Stark_ \- and his best friend were talking about how he somehow had taken up the identity of Ned’s father. Did he really act that old? He knew that the Avengers had been assuming he was over eighteen, he thought that was more like they were in denial. He was aware that it was a possibility they thought he was dating or married, but they thought he had a kid his own age? How old did they think he was? Did he like, not act normal for a teenager?

 

It was kinda funny when he thought about it. 

 

_Fuck it- why not?_ He wondered.

 

He walked up to Ned and placed both his hands on his shoulders, and solemnly said, “I think Spider-Man would be very glad to have you as his son.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for reading and all your support, it really means a lot!!!
> 
> Have a great day/night wherever you are!!! <33333


	10. "what're you doing This Weekend?"  "something fucking Sick"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a soft™ chapter, just cuz I feel like it, and we could all use a little softness rn with how it's going with Spidey in the MCU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! First off I wanted to apologize for missing my normal schedule, I've just been really off lately, and this whole Sony/Spidey thing that happened really got me down (I know it's really stupid to be affected by this, but I still am)
> 
> Secondly, I just wanted to thank you again for how much support you guys give through comments and kudos- I honestly wouldn't be writing if not for you all <3 I'm really sorry I haven't been responding to comments, my social anxiety has been getting worse as the school gets closer, but I'll be trying to respond to as many as I can in the next little while- but I do read (and re-read) all of them for encouragement, so thank you!<333
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter!

The Avengers had been having a pretty good day, and a pretty normal one too, considering who they were.

It had been a quiet day so far, all the Avengers had gone about their daily business without any of their usual interruptions, and even their friendly bickering seemed to be at an all-time low today. Tony had left a few hours ago for some Stark Industries meeting and would be back late, but other than that, pretty much all of them were enjoying a relaxing day.

It was around six in the evening when the day took a slightly different turn as Steve, Wanda, and Nat sat peacefully in the kitchen while Sam took out a few drinks for them all, and Rhodey was asking Happy to pick up some pizza.

Clint and Vision soon joined them from training, and they were all contentedly watching the rain fall softly outside the compound window, will the gentle evening light still bright enough that it cast a subtle calmness throughout the room, making everyone content to sit quietly, with the silence only being broken every one in a while by the sound of thunder in the distance, which brought back some fond memories of their old friend who was now traveling the galaxy.

They were at peace and had comfort with one another, and it probably would’ve remained like that had the elevator doors not opened to let in a very wet Spider-Man.

———————————————————————————————

Peter’s day had been complete _shit_ , to put it mildly.

First, he had forgotten to take his phone out of his jean pockets when he went home the previous day, and unknowingly May had picked up those jeans to wash with the phone still inside, and now it wasn’t turning on at all, so that was great. He had left it lying in the sun with the hopes that it would dry, but for now, he was phone-less.

Flash didn't bother him all that much usually- he was an inconvenience more than anything- but today he had been relentless with annoying Peter.

And, oh yeah! Joy of joy’s, they had had an assembly today, which might’ve been good, but no, because apparently the good ole’ Captain America had released new PSA’s, and they, collectively as a school, were forced to sit down and watch them all, because the previous amount of Captain America PSA’s wasn’t enough. Because _that’s_ what was wrong with the school system.

He was looking forward to finally going over to the compound tonight, just to have a break from everything and spend some time in the lab with Mr. Stark, but he had waited outside the school for a good forty minutes before realizing that Happy hadn’t come to pick him up, and highly doubted that he would be coming anytime soon. But it was pouring outside, and he hadn’t brought an umbrella with him, not to mention that May was working until late since she thought he’d be spending the night at the compound, so that was great.

And he couldn’t call Ned or MJ since they had already gone home, and he didn’t have his freakin phone, so despite better reasoning, he decided to put on his suit and try to call someone through Karen.

First, he called May, and unsurprisingly she didn’t pick up since she was working. Next, he called Mr. Stark, but surprisingly it wasn’t picked up, even though his mentor usually always answered by the third ring. He shrugged it off and called Happy, and was once again not surprised as he was sent to voicemail. After he left a quick message asking to be picked up, he called Ned and then MJ, both of whom hadn’t responded. 

At this point, it was just getting pathetic, and he almost tried calling the Avengers until he decided to just swing to the compound himself, and hope that the rain would let up.

He sorted through his backpack until he found his raincoat, and slipped it on over his suit, hoping it wouldn’t interfere with his web-shooters, before asking Karen to plot a route to the compound, and lifted off swinging through the buildings until he was forced to start riding on cars as they got farther away from the city.

After a two-hour trek through buildings, traffic, and trees, he finally arrived at the compound soaking wet, cold, and miserable. He climbed through the windows in Mr. Stark’s level, immediately tore off his mask (do you know how uncomfortable a wet full-face mask is? Not fun) and scanned the floor for his mentor, but he wasn’t anywhere to be found. More than anything, Peter just wanted to peel off the soaked suit and put on some dry, comfortable clothes, but he also felt like spending time with the billionaire himself, so once he realized that Tony wasn’t on his own floor, he figured he must be on the Avengers floor- something Peter particularly didn’t feel like dealing with at that moment since he _really_ didn’t want to hear Steve’s voice ever again (or at least for that day). But wanting to see Mr. Stark won out for him, so he painfully put his mask back on, and asked Karen to turn on the heaters in his suit as he boarded the elevator to take him down.

The doors opened to show the Avengers just sitting peacefully as if they were all having a grand-fucking-time while he had just spent the past two hours in the rain.

“Spider-Man? What are you doing here?” Steve asked in surprise as they all took in the appearance of the vigilante.

 _“Of course the first voice I have to fucking hear upon my arrival is ‘Mr. God Bless America, and Do Your Homework’._ ” He thought.

———————————————————————————————

Well, he _thought_ he thought it, but he had actually said it aloud, leaving the room understandably stunned, causing Steve to shut his mouth quickly, attempting to hide that he was more than a little hurt.

“Where’s Mr. Stark?”

“He’s uh, he’s gone,” Sam explained, a small bit unsure of how to deal with the soaked spider who was acting like a moody teenager after a bad day at school.

The usually-cheerful man just sighed and muttered something about ‘parking luck’ as he turned back towards the elevator which he had previously emerged from with smoke, causing quite the dramatic entrance, but resulted in more than a few questioning glances as to why Spider-Man had steam coming off him.

“When he comes back, tell him I’m here.”

“Wait, where are you going?” Rhodey asked in slight concern. “Tony won’t be back until later tonight, he has some meeting or something…”

“He had a meeting? Why didn’t he tell me?”

“Does he usually tell you that sort of thing?” Natasha asked curiously.

“Well, yeah, he tells you guy’s too, doesn’t he?”

They all nodded, deciding not to mention that they had assumed there may be bad blood between the two.

“He could’ve at least sent a message through Karen or something,” the Spider vented, seemingly forgetting that no one knew who the hell Karen was and that he very well might’ve just given up the name of his wife and/or assistant.

“Did you need something from his lab?” Rhodey asked. “He locked it while he was away, but if it’s desperate I could go in and get it for you.”

“No- um, thanks though Rhodey, I just kinda wanted to talk to him about stuff…”

The bad mood that the vigilante was in coupled with that fact that he needed to apparently talk with Tony on private matters seemed to make it awkward since it wasn’t unknown that Spider-Man had rejected the Avenger offer, and while none of them knew the full story of what happened, it was hard to picture anything good.

Spider-Man repeatedly pushed the elevator button and coughed a little while shaking, obviously still wet.

“Uh, if you wanted to stay for a bit and dry off, you’re more than welcome to,” Sam offered while Steve nodded, still afraid to speak after Spidey’s outburst. “And I’m sure there’s some spare clothes you could borrow… maybe even an extra mask or something.”

“Thanks, but I should be heading home.”

“At least wait until the rain lets up,” Wanda advised.

“It’s ok, I’ll just call an Uber or something-“

Just then the elevator doors opened to show a tired-looking Tony, which then morphed into a surprised Tony.

“What the _fuck_? What’re you doing here Underoos? I told you not to come today.”

“Yeah, my, uh- my phone isn’t working- long story.”

“Why are you soaking wet?”

“It’s raining outside.”

“And?”

“It’s raining outside.”

“Please don’t tell me you came all the way here in the rain.”

“…”

“Spider-Man.”

“...”

 _“Pete_ \- um for Pete’s sake Spidey.”

“You told me not to tell you, and Steve always says that ‘it’s important we always speak the truth, even when it might not be in our benefit,’ so even if telling you what you want to hear would be in my personal benefit, I’m afraid I can’t lie. Especially in front of Cap.”

“Since when has Steve said that?” Several voices asked including Tony, Natasha, Sam, and Steve himself (only he said ‘I’ instead of ’Steve,’ since he finds it strange to talk in third-person, as many people do).

“I don’t know, like since ten this morning? Look, that’s not important right now,” Spidey waved off.

“Right, why are we still even talking? Go get changed into something other than your suit.”

“Hey wait, why can’t I stay here with you and the team?” Spidey asked, still shivering a bit.

“I’m sorry, I distinctly remember you turning down being on the Avengers- also you’re soaking wet and cold.”

“I’m not cold.”

“Your visibly shaking Underoos,” Tony reminded, gently pushing the man inside the elevator. “Go get changed. And maybe sleep or eat something, then we’ll getcha home.”

Spider-Man mumbled something as the elevator doors were closing, and Tony turned back to everyone else, who were currently trying to figure out what had just happened between the two men. 

It was odd, especially since it seemed like Spider-Man had a bone to pick with the billionaire earlier, and even though their conversation seemed to be good-natured, without seeing the facial expressions behind the mask, it was hard to tell.

That being said, it was beginning to become strange to even imagine a face behind the mask- the eyes seemed to display emotion so well, that imagining Spider-Man as someone other than Spider-Man was becoming harder and harder.

———————————————————————————————

Peter shuffled to his room and tore off his wet suit, and instead took a long, hot, shower before finally drying off and putting on dry clothes until finally flopping into bed under multiple heavy blankets.

When he woke up again, the first thing he noticed was how cold he was despite the warm layers that surrounded him. The second thing he noticed was that his throat was _killing_ him.

It didn’t take long for him to clue in what had happened. He knew it was probably late already, but he was really thirsty, and since his throat was beyond hurting, he grabbed as many blankets that he could reasonably carry and headed to the kitchen to make tea.

He had been trying his hardest to stay quiet, but he was covered almost fully in think blankets, which reasonably made every task a little bit harder, causing him to give up momentarily for a few minutes more than once.

He had managed to finally pour himself tea and sat down at the counter to enjoy it in silence.

It was only a few minutes after he sat down that the lights flicked on and he heard a small shout of surprise, which- after turning around to inspect- had come from his mentor who apparently hadn’t gone to bed.

Not wanting to strain his voice, Peter just gave him a small wave in greeting as Tony finally calmed the fuck down a bit. Seeing that he didn’t elaborate on what he was doing huddled up drinking tea, the billionaire went about the kitchen normally, making himself some coffee. He sat down across from Peter as he waited for his coffee to finish brewing, and only then did he take into account the kid’s state.

———————————————————————————————

“Jeez Pete, you look terrible,” he stated in hopes of annoying the boy into talking, but instead he just got a cold scowl as he sipped his tea. “It’s only nine-thirty, and you’ve been up here resting, but yet you look like you’ve been hit by a train.”

Still, though Peter said nothing. He waited a minute, wondering if Peter would speak up, but he didn’t, which was more than concerning since the normally talkative kid hadn’t said a word since he entered, which either meant he was hiding something, or he was mad. Or both.

“Ok, something is clearly wrong,” Tony stated, finally too fed up (overly concerned) to wait and draw out the issue slowly. “And I can’t do anything unless you tell me what’s wrong- and if something _is_ wrong and you don’t tell me, I’m pretty sure I’ll be hearing about it from May, so it saves a lot more time for everyone if you just be honest.”

Peter looked up at him, obviously considering his options, though ultimately he gave in to Tony’s pleas.

“I think I’m sick Mr. Stark,” he finally responded in the most terribly raspy voice he had ever heard.

_Oh please no._

“Yeah no shit,” Tony finally managed to choke out. He had never seen Peter sick before, and there was something odd gripping at his chest when he saw how weak the usually strong kid looked.

“How’d you get sick anyways? I thought your powers made you immune to normal crap like this?”

“I got bitten by a radioactive spider, not radioactive cold-medicine,” he replied with several coughs.

Tony nodded and tried to remain calm on the outside, but on the inside, he was freaking out- he had no idea what to do when it came to taking care of a sick person. 

Or maybe that should be rephrased- there had been plenty of times he had looked after someone sick- Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy had all gotten sick before, and there was no way he was just about to leave them to suffer alone. But the differing thing in those scenarios is that they were adults that he had known for a long time, and even then he didn’t do it completely right. Not to mention, that by human standards, they were pretty normal.

Peter, on the other hand, was not normal. Until this moment, Tony hadn’t even given it much thought that Peter could get sick, but on top of that, he had no clue how to handle a sick teen- did they need as much care as a child? Or less attention than an adult, since many, especially Peter, preferred to be independent? Did the bite affect his immune system? Would being sick affect his powers? What if this wasn’t just a cold-

 _“Mr. Stark,_ ” Peter coughed out in frustration, snapping Tony from his thoughts.

“Yeah? Anything I can do for you Underoos?”

“I was just- wondering if there- was a way to dry- dry my suit?” 

Tony winced each time Peter coughed in the sentence and tried to continue acting undisturbed and calm, but-

“I’m sorry, but what are you planning to do with the suit? You shouldn’t be going anywhere in this state, let alone swinging across the city-“

“No, don’t worry- I-I just wanted the heater in the suit…”

“Are you cold?” He asked in a moment of pure concern but soon realized his stupidity as soon as Peter gave him an _‘are you kidding’_ look from underneath his pile of blankets where he sat shivering.

“Right, of course… if you give me the suit I’ll wash and dry it for you.” Peter opened his mouth to respond, but Tony just shushed him. 

“Before you go on saying that you only need it dried and not washed- there is no way I’m letting you put on that thing without washing it first. Now please, for the love of all good things, go and _sleep_.”

Peter surprisingly didn’t argue this and pushed out his chair before shakily getting up to head to his room. After watching him take a few unsteady steps that looked painful, and was painful to look at, Tony got up from his chair without a second thought, and supported him as they walked back to his room- this earned the billionaire a confused look from Peter, but seeing as the kid didn’t push him away, he took it that his help was allowed.

After helping Peter to bed, he quietly collected the wet suit and brought it to the laundry room to wash and dry it in the specialty set (it became too much effort to do it by hand every time, so he built a machine for it).

As he waited for the cycle to finish, he went back to collect his coffee he had still yet to pour, and went back to the Avengers level to be with the others after quickly calling May to inform her of the situation- and promise that they were equipped and willing to take care of him for the night.

———————————————————————————————

It was around midnight when the suit was finally washed and dried, so he quickly said goodnight to everyone, and went to collect the suit before heading up to Peter’s room to quietly leave the suit near his bed. He had expected Peter to be fast asleep when he came in, but when he walked in he was lightly surprised (more pitying) to see that he was awake, and not even trying to hide it.

“Having trouble sleeping?” Tony asked, incredibly aware that it was a stupid question the moment the words left his mouth. He resisted the urge to facepalm, as Peter responded, barely able to scrape out, “it hurts.”

“Shit, sorry kid, this is my fault for not making sure you knew Happy wasn’t coming...”

Peter shook his head desperately and attempted to choke out something along the lines of ‘no it was my fault’, but his words were hardly comprehensible, and each looked like it was causing more pain than the last- not to mention the clear annoyance that Peter was experiencing in not being able to speak anything understandable, so Tony just gestured for him to stop instead.

“Let’s just agree that it was neither of our faults then and that it was nothing but more of your terrible luck hitting yet again.” Peter nodded in agreement with this, so Tony considered that a win.

Next, he knew that he really should try and convince the kid to sleep, but another part of him understood the desperation to do anything but try and force yourself to sleep, especially when you’re sick, since that’s like forcing yourself to sit and experience pain for a few hours, so instead he asked if Peter wanted to watch a movie, to which Peter unsurprisingly accepted.

So Tony went to go prepare the living room while Peter changed into his Spider-Suit and stumbled out carrying an unreasonably large pile of blankets that he threw on the nearest couch before collapsing onto it. Tony helped him get into a slightly more comfortable position before throwing some of the blankets onto Peter and finally placed himself beside the spider as they turned on the tv (Peter wanted to watch _E.T_ ).

———————————————————————————————

“Tony?” Rhodey called out. He had assumed the billionaire was in his lab, but surprisingly, F.R.I.D.A.Y had informed him that his friend was watching tv on his private floor, something that rarely ever happened unless Pepper was there- which she wasn’t- so he hadn’t had any hesitations about interrupting him.

“Tones? I need to ask you something, and Fri wasn’t carrying the messages through.” He caught sight of his friend lounging on the couch, who was quickly throwing a blanket on the couch beside him.

“Tony-“

“Yes, I heard you,” he said in a hushed voice. “Keep it down a bit.”

Slightly annoyed but mostly curious, Rhodes walked up to the couch and looked down to see a blanket-covered body.

“That’s not Pepper,” he reaffirmed.

“No, it’s… it’s not.”

Rhodey smiled softly as it clicked in who it was. “Spidey didn’t go home, did he?”

Tony glanced down at the small form resting on his lap and pulled the blanket up a little more securely over what seemed to be the face so it wouldn’t fall.

“What, did you really think I’d let him go anywhere in this condition?” He said a little defensively.

“Just asking.”

“Be quiet. So what was it you wanted to ask?”

“It can wait for later, I’ll let you attend to your kid, for now, _Irondad_.”

 _“Hey._ ”

There was a slight shuffling under the blankets, as a hand reached out and tried the pull the blankets down until Stark quickly grabbed the hand and pushed it back under. 

“Mr. Stark?” A raspy voice identical to how a sick Spider-Man would sound coughed out.

“Just wait a sec kid, Rhodes is still here.”

“Hm? But he knows who Spider-Man is already… so it's ok…”

“Yeah, but he hasn’t seen you without the mask yet- I thought you still wanted to do the whole secret identity thing?”

“I do, but I also don’t feel like being stuffed in a blanket… you think about how burritos feel, like damn, they probably don’t feel great.”

Rhodey gave out a soft laugh at this interaction. “I think that’s my cue to leave- g’ night Tones, feel better Spidey.” He turned to leave and heard as Spider-Man moved the blanket from his head. The colonel got in the elevator and turned back just in time to see a mess of brown hair resting on his friend's shoulder as Stark fixed the blanket before wrapping his arms around the half-awake kid, causing him to smile despite himself. He would never have believed it if someone had told him Tony could be fatherly, yet here they were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> I know this chapter was a little bit softer, but I felt like I needed a break from all the high-strung chapters in this.
> 
> Also, I'm going to be starting a new fic, y'know those ones that everyone's doing cuz their pissed at Sony, and everyone forgets Peter and what-not? Yea, I'm doing one, mostly because it's just so I can get my anger out, but I'll be posting that soon if you're interested. It'll be either three or five chapters depending on how long each chapter is, but either way, I'm just telling you guys this cuz' the chapters for this fic might come a little slower.
> 
> Thank you all again so much for your support!!


	11. it is wEDNESDay my dudes aaaaaAAAGHHHHHHGAAAAAAAAA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *chanting* teA TEA TEA TEA TEA TEA TEA TEA TEA TE-
> 
> idk guys, i suck at the whole 'summery' thing 
> 
> (and yes I only picked that vine cus I'm posting on a WED neS dAYYYY)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okkkk- shout-out to DrabbleWritingBitch (yet again, yet again), because you came up with another great idea, and so I started writing it, and then it turned into this atrocity of the english language... I'm sorry, I honestly was trying to fill your prompt idk how this even happened
> 
> like, I'm already really sorry for what you're about to read, but in the wise, wise words of John Mulaney: "Once you write it, it stays in the act forever."
> 
> Thank you all so much for your support, it really helps fuel me to keep this story going, like never thought it'd be this long, so thank you all so much!!!! <333333
> 
> (And also I feel like I should address this cuz I get a lot of comments, but I Feel really bad abt making the Avengers so blind in this, but it's only for jokessss!! but yea i feel really bad abt it... sorry guyss)

 

 

Peter rolled around in bed and attempted to ignore the still-burning sensation in his throat that made it quite clear that his cold had taken a turn for the worse as he tried to fool his body into thinking he was still asleep, before ultimately giving up and grabbing his phone to check the time. It wasn’t until he spent nearly a full minute feeling around for his phone before he remembered that he had left it in the living room the previous night while he was watching movies with Mr. Stark.

 

He also realized that he had fallen asleep on the couch, yet was now in his bed, which meant that his mentor had somehow managed to carry him there, and tried to ignore his annoyance that Mr. Stark still treated him like a kid and carried him to bed instead of leaving him on the couch for the rest of the night like any normal person would’ve done.

 

After debating whether or not he should get out of bed to maybe stretch and get a glass of water, or stay and sleep a little more, maybe even re-watch _The Clone Wars_ , when his previously mentioned mentor stepped through the door holding a mug of a steaming beverage.

 

Peter opened his mouth to greet Tony, but the man cut him off before he even started.

 

“No talking.”

 

Of course, Peter wasn’t one to listen, so he tried to speak anyway.

 

“…”

 

His mouth opened and closed as he attempted to be heard, but no words came out. He gripped his throat in a sudden panic. _Ok,_ he thought. _Okokok- this is fine, I’m fine…_  

 

But he wasn’t fine… not at all. He was very much so _freaking-the-hell_ _out_ , while his mentor looked relatively calm.

 

“I told you not to talk. Karen sent me a diagnostics scan went you put on the suit- good news is, it’s only a cold and not some weird spider-illness or whatever- bad news, it seems you got Laryngitis, aka voice loss- but hey, good news again, it only lasts a couple of days, and here-“ he passed the mug he was holding to Peter. “-you get to drink tea.”

 

Peter tried his best to glare at his mentor, but Tony ignored his expression and handed him the mug of tea which Peter finally accepted.

 

“Good Spider,” Tony said affectionately while ruffling his hair, to which earned him another glare as Peter swatted his hand away. “Well, well, look who’s touchy huh? Don’t worry, I called May and told her everything, and she asked me if you could stay the weekend- or until you get better- since she’s working, so it looks like your going to be here for a while until you get better.”

 

Peter nodded in understanding, and then it went quiet for a moment, with Mr. Stark looking at him expectingly, so he gestured for the man to continue.

 

“Oh right- I forgot you can’t- and that’s the whole reason why I’m here right now- well, not the _whole_ reason, but anyways- is there anything you need for right now?”

 

 _His phone_.

 

He nodded and tried to answer, but when that didn’t work, he tried gesturing, which resulted in a series of trial and error as Tony tried to guess what his charades meant. After nearly a minute with no successful answers, Peter realized that he could just write what he needed… only he didn’t have any random paper and pencils nearby. Tony seemed to understand what he was looking for, so he most helpfully suggested: “why don’t you just type it on your phone?”

 

Which caused Peter to start excitedly gesturing again in hopes that Mr. Stark would understand this time.

 

“ _Oh_ , you need your phone?”

 

He nodded.

 

“Where’d you leave- never mind, that’s just gonna take longer, I’ll be right back.”

 

Peter set his tea down on the side table beside his bed, and fell back on his pillow again, trying to swallow the pain in his throat. It sucked. All he wanted to do was go to sleep and wake up better, but at the same time he was almost sick of sleeping, if only because it very suddenly made him feel incredibly unproductive, like he should be doing something with his life, something that would actually make a difference in the world, even if he already was a superhero, he wanted to do more- but then again, that was a very hard thing to do when he was sick in bed, unable to even stand up straight without a risk of falling…

 

Yeah, he should probably sleep more, if only to avoid thinking about his life when he couldn’t really do anything about it at that moment. Just then, the door reopened, and Mr. Stark came back in with his phone in hand, along with a small bag, and threw both of the items on the bed a few inches from his head (which earned the billionaire another glare).

 

“Here you are Underoos, phone, and stuff for sick people… I have no clue what it’s supposed to do since medicine normally does absolutely nothing for me, but Pep told me I had to get _something_ , so don’t blame me. And lemme know if you need anything else, like soup or something, ok?”

 

Peter nodded and signed _‘thank you’_ (Clint had taught the Avengers few simple signs) and Tony exited the room, once again leaving him alone, and incredibly bored. He grabbed his laptop off the floor and watched a few episodes of _Sonny With a Chance_ as he drank his tea, but ultimately he closed his laptop and tried sleeping again.

 

* * *

 

 

When he woke up again, he had no clue what time it was, and it wasn’t by choice that he woke up.

 

His phone was buzzing from a call, which was annoying, to say the least, but when he looked at the contact so see Mr. Stark’s name, he didn’t think twice before answering. It wasn’t until he opened his mouth to speak that he remembered he couldn’t actually _talk_ on the phone, which brought up the question as to why Mr. Stark called him when he knew he couldn’t talk- unless that was the point, and his mentor called him purely to tease him, which was a pretty annoying thought.

 

“Peter, I _swear_ , if you're in the lab right now instead of getting rest, I’m going to kill you…”

 

The arachnid at this point realized he could make small choking noises, but that didn’t really do much for the conversation, but it did apparently clue Tony in that he couldn’t currently answer his question.

 

“Right… you can’t talk. But I just got an alert from Fri that someone entered my lab, and I promise you that if you’re the one in there, I will come back home and… I can’t threaten to take your suit since you need to keep warm right now, but I’ll figure _something_ out… like I’ll tell Clint where your room is, or- oh shit- I’m supposed to be in a meeting right now, so I need to go, but I’ll be back soon, so just stay out of the lab kid, ok? See you later.”

With that the billionaire ended the phone call, leaving the spider slightly annoyed to have been woken up in the first place when he hadn’t even been _in_ the lab… but if he wasn’t in the lab, then who was?

 

This sent him into a slight panic since he did ultimately spend _way_ too much time watching conspiracy videos. He really wished he could’ve blamed this line of thinking on lack of sleep, or cold medication, but considering that he had had an abnormal amount of sleep, and hadn’t taken any of the medicine- since it no longer worked with his enhanced metabolism anyway, not that he ever took it in the first place since it was never worth it- so he really couldn’t blame it on anyone but himself.

 

Either way, he suddenly found himself blessed with the knowledge that there was someone on the floor with him, _in the lab_. So his first thoughts were ‘robbers’, and his second thought was not to reasonably wonder if it was one of the workers, or maybe an Avenger, but to go and stop whoever-it-was. And since he was already in his suit, it was a rather easy thing to convince himself to do.

 

He quickly pulled on his mask, and threw his covers aside, before (attempting) leaping out of bed towards the door, only forgetting to open the door first, so he sorta just ran _through_ the door instead, but whatever, that was in the past now, and he could probably just find a door to attach later. It didn’t even need to be a special door, just as long as it was his door, he would learn to love it- he would learn to _a-doore_ it- but he figured it would probably be best not to harm any more entrance dressers for the rest of the day, which is why he was very careful not to run through the glass door to the lab.

 

He debated for a moment if he should choose to go in quietly as a surprise, or if he should just _ring-a-ding-ding take aim and fucking swing_ , but he realized soon enough that the doors were glass, and whoever-was-in-there had probably seen him standing there for quite a while now, so he scanned his hand, which of course didn’t work since he had on his glove, so he just used the password that Mr. Stark had given him, and stepped in.

 

As soon as he entered the lab, he realized just how much he didn’t feel like doing this, and just wondered if it was too late to turn around and go watch _Back to the Future_ (for the hundredth time) instead of dealing with whatever joker decided to break into the lab.

 

He soon spotted the intruder, who actually ended up being Captain America- the very idea of a non-intruder who was innocently getting some gear that Tony had told him about earlier that day- but to hell with that man’s innocence. He may be a national hero-turned-war-criminal-turned-hero-again, but that was no excuse for the innocent kids he fucking murdered slowly multiple times a day, all across the country with those damn PSA’s.

 

So maybe that’s why it didn’t occur to him that Steve was in fact, not any sort of threat, as he plummeted through the air, knocking out the captain in surprise. And yes, when I say _‘knock out’_ I _mean ‘knock out’_. I mean, even a Super-Solider can get hit in the back of his head by a flying spider every now and then. Especially since he wasn’t expecting it.

 

Peter looked at the body laying on the floor and suddenly realized that this was all very wrong. Though to be fair, he _had_ been trying to use his powers responsibly by stopping a robber, but somehow still got the feeling that this wasn’t what his uncle meant when he told him ‘ _with great power comes great responsibility_ ’. Actually, he felt like Ben probably would’ve told him to stay in bed too. _Well shit. It looks like everyone here is disappointed now,_ he thought as he considered what to do next.

 

He couldn’t just _leave_ Steve there, cuz if Tony came back, it would… actually that would be pretty funny, but then Mr. Stark would undoubtedly look at the security tapes, and that wouldn’t be great either. He made a mental note to ask the AI to delete that video later.

 

Now, it was obvious that the easiest thing to do, would be to carry him down, but he was also feeling super loopy at the moment, and he couldn’t really walk right, so instead he searched the lab for one of those cart-thingy’s from IKEA, which he eventually found, and rolled the good ole’ captain onto the cart.

 

He had tried to roll it a few steps before getting annoyed that Steve’s loose body limbs kept flailing all over the place, so he quickly found some duct tape, but his moral standards told him not to just use it to tape him in a holding position, since the tape would very much hurt when taking it off, so he spent another dizzying ten minutes looking for something that would be more civilized, falling more than a few times as he tried to climb over things. At one point, he had tried walking on the ceiling since that had fewer obstacles, but he had sneezed (which was a terrible thing to have happen in a full face mask, ten-out-of-ten would _not_ recommend, don’t try it at home kids) and ascended straight down into the hellish landing pile of Tony’s desk (he _really_ needed to remember to delete the video files later), so after that the ground was his preferred way of travel.

 

Quite honestly though, he was having a rough time figuring out what to use to make the tape softer and had almost narrowed it down to either sucking it up and using the tape, even though it’s probably hurt a lot for Steve, or he _could_ try punching Steve again to wake him up, cuz that seemed to work in movies, but just as he almost decided to go with that second option, he saw a very large roll of bubble wrap, and his answer was found.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Ok so, if you think about it, it was a very weird situation for him. Like imagine if three years ago, someone told you in the future you’d be very sick, wearing a spider-themed spandex suit (that may or may not have been based on a vine), wrapping up a good-looking, muscular PSA video star, who also just-so-happens to be over seventy years old, and one of your- a sixteen-year-old nerd who likes Star Wars a little too much- friends, after you knocked him out in a high-tech lab, and you had now duct-taped some bubble-wrapped around him as you took his unconscious body for a joy ride around a very secure base, home to the most powerful people on the planet.

 

Like it was a pretty whacked situation if you thought about it a little too much, so he didn’t think about it, and just went about his day like it was completely normal. It wasn’t until he had loaded him onto the cart, and stepped out of the lab that he realized the easiest solution would’ve been to just.

 

Use his webbing.

 

But hey, Peter Parker might be a genius, but Spider-Man... was still him, so he didn’t really have any excuse for his stupidity, he just thought it was pretty cool that he had two names- which brought up an interesting question: Was Spidey’s first name ‘Spider,’ and last name ‘Man’? Like _yeesh_ , what a sucky last name.

 

He carted Steve into the elevator and pushed the button to the Avengers floor to deliver the man back to where he belonged.

 

The floor was right underneath Mr. Stark’s floor, so he wasn’t too worried about extra passengers, but soon that refusal to worry became invalid as the elevator zoomed past the Avengers floor, onto the main level. It was at this point that he checked the buttons and realized that perhaps, touching the buttons while he was already dizzy from moving around so much, was a bad idea since his whole vision was swimming. He considered using the emergency stop so he could get out before anyone else could come in, but he figured it would be pretty rude to put his needs in front of someone else’s, and his situation probably wasn’t as desperate as theirs was, since he didn’t really have anywhere to be in a hurry, and neither did Steve (probably), and even if he _did_ , he was probably going to miss it due to being unconscious anyway _, sooooo_. Yeah.

 

The doors opened, but y’ see, tours happened on the weekend. And it was just now made _very_ clear to him that it was a weekend as he looked at the tour group in front of him.

 

He quickly scanned the group and was more than relieved that no one he knew was in the group. He then turned his attention to the very stunned looking tour-guide. It was a little weird to see what an effect he had on people like he never imagined that anyone would be speechless in front of him, it was super whack. Also, the actual visitors looked… well, they looked a little scared, but he was sure that it was just celebrity fear, and the excitement that they got to share an elevator with him. 

 

Everyone was so shocked, that they actually didn’t get on the elevator, and the doors slowly closed leaving him alone in the small box. He figured that they were probably just being nice, and not wanting to intrude in his space, but he also didn’t want them to be behind schedule for their tour, so he reopened the doors, and the faces of the crowd reappeared. He tried to invite them in before realizing that his voice was currently not working (press f for respect), so instead, he gestured for them to come in.

 

“It’s ok sir, um, we can wait…” The tour guide smattered.

 

But Peter felt really bad for delaying them since if the tour was on time they would be able to see one of the workout sessions that the team usually did for the tour groups, so he just gestured more, narrowing his eyes a little in frustration when the tour guide still tried to come up with an excuse. He vaguely wondered if that was what Mr. Stark felt like when he refused help with something that simple. Finally, though, the tour guide relented and slowly brought the group in.

 

The guide gave the normal speech about the compound, and about the floors, where they were going or whatever, as Peter quickly pressed the correct button for the Avengers floor, and the elevator zoomed up. The people kept looking at him in awe, not really focusing on the speech currently being spoken. He was thankful that there was a policy for no photos without permission since he wasn’t really in the mood to be photographed, but ultimately _was_ a little hurt that not a single person asked to take a selfie with him, but whatever.

 

The elevator arrived at the Avengers floor before the group got off (since it was considered a priority floor, also it was pretty darn cool for everyone to see), so he gave a quick wave to everyone, and stepped off the small moving lift. Actually, it was really big for an elevator, he wasn’t sure why he’d called it small- I mean, it _had_ fit him, a tour group, _and_ a trolly-thing, so… He stopped dead in his tracks.

 

He had left _Steve Rogers_ knocked out, tied up on a trolly, on an elevator full of visitors. He spun around and raced towards the elevator. The doors were closed, so he pulled them open without a second thought, and looked down where the elevator was moving quickly below him. 

 

Without thinking, he shot out a web, and jumped down after it until he forgot to shoot out another one, and just free-fell into a face-plant on top of it, leaving a small imprint in the metal. He heard some concerned voices from inside but didn’t register them as he focused on opening the emergency hatch and jumping in. Normally he would be able to enter with a super-cool pose, but all he did was land face-first into metal.

 

He _was_ sick, so it was understandable when he just flopped to the ground as everyone desperately moved out of the way of the falling body, not even bothering to try and catch him.

 

“Sorry,” he managed to choke out in less than a whisper as he looked at all the validly freaked out people, standing up, and pushing his way past a few of them until he was beside Steve’s unconscious body once again, and shot a web on the Avengers floor button, and the box changed directions and went up _again_.

 

The doors opened once more, and he shoved the cart through the crowd of people (who weren’t allowed to exit onto the Avengers floor, so that really made things hard…), and after multiple raspy whisper-apologies that were basically just choking noises, he finally was able to push the body to freedom (the freedom of _America_ ) and sighed of relief when the elevator doors closed, leaving that confused tour group to get on with their day.

 

He was probably the first to admit that it could’ve gone better, but… yeah, just, that could’ve gone a lot better…

 

At least no one had taken a video of it, and even if they had, they couldn’t legally post it, so, that was at least good. Also, no one had been hurt, and in the end, they still got to go on their tour, and he was still in possession of Steve’s body, so there had been no harm, and they could all go about their daily lives without being affected too much.

 

As he wheeled Steve through the floor, it occurred to him that he wasn’t sure which of their rooms was which, and he couldn’t really ask anyone (not that he had seen anyone else on the floor so far), so he just, pushed him into the living room, and he was about to set him on the couch, but he was tired and sick, and dizzy, and he didn’t feel like doing it, so it was time for some real good _procrastination_ , in which he let himself make some tea and sit for a little bit, before freeing Cap.

 

It’d only take a few minutes, and Steve would probably be out cold for a while longer, so neither of them were in a rush at the moment.

 

After he finished his cup of tea, he decided to head back up to his room and get some sleep, so he went up to his room, and promptly crashed, not even bothering to take his mask off.

 

 

* * *

 

 

The Avengers (sans Tony and Steve) walked back onto their floor after their team workout… well, _almost_ team.

 

Tony had been working on some new tech to be used, so he had given them access to his lab to retrieve the stuff since he was already running late for a Stark Industries meeting. 

 

But when they had gone to train, they realized they had forgotten some of it, so Steve had volunteered to go get it. But he never came back.

 

And even though it was an unlikely thing for him to do, it _was_ the least favourite workout time, since they mostly did it for show as the tour groups passed by- and quite honestly, most of them would’ve loved the opportunity to escape.

 

So yeah, when they left the gym for the day and headed upstairs to their rooms, they had expected to see Steve in the kitchen making dinner as an apology, or maybe watching tv and resting, since he _had_ been taking an awful lot of missions lately, so it would’ve been valid.

 

They did not, however, expect to find Steve dressed nicely in bubble wrap and duct tape, laying on a cart to be wheeled around on.

 

“What. The. Fuck.” Sam commented more than asked. “What even _is_ this? What does it mean? _Who the hell was even able to do this?_ ”

 

“Is he knocked out?” Clint asked skeptically.

 

Wanda walked over and placed her hands on Steves's head, her fingers pulsing red for a few moments. “He’s alive,” she confirmed. “Should I wake him up?”

 

“No, we should try to get him out first,” Natasha decided before moving in front of him to try and untangle the mess, with Sam and Vision stepping forward to help.

 

“Friday- do you know what happened to Steve in the past two hours?” Rhodey questioned after watching the three work for a minute.

 

_“Yes. I have all the security footage containing Captain Rogers from the past few hours, none of which has restricted access. When would you like me to play them from?”_

 

“Can you play them from when he left the gym… about two hours ago?”

 

 _“Now playing.”_ The AI announced as the screen lit up.

 

At this point, Wanda, Clint, and Sam also turned their attention to the screen and watched the scenes flicker as Steve walked through hallways, and into Tony’s lab. It was all going pretty normal until a sudden flash of red and blue jumped on-screen, tackling Steve to the floor.

 

“What the _fuck_ is Spidey even doing here? Doesn’t he have a job?” Sam questioned as the video continued to show the series of events that resulted in Steve being brought to the level in his current state.

 

“… So does he just come and roam around the compound more often than we think, or...?” Wanda trailed off as they watched Spider-Man leave the room, and return with a cup of tea after fast-forwarding a few minutes. They continued to fast-forward through around fifteen minutes of Spidey just drinking tea before he got up and left through the elevator, leaving Steve tied up and alone, after which the screen went black as the AI informed them that Steve hadn’t moved again until they arrived.

 

“Ok, so wait,” Sam finally said after a few moments of silence that had only been broken by random _pops_ on the bubble wrap. “Spidey didn’t leave through the window, right? And he had already been on Stark’s floor when this all happened, so, does that mean he has a room here after all, but it’s just on Stark’s floor?”

 

“Tony has a guest room that he’ll let some people use,” Rhodey explained. “I’ve seen him let his intern stay there before, and- _oh_ …” It suddenly clicked in why Tony had let his ‘intern’ stay in that room- it probably _was_ Spidey’s room- hence it was _also_ his intern’s room.

 

“Really? He just lets random workers stay with him?” Clint asked skeptically.

 

“Yep. I’ve seen quite a few people use it,” he lied. He didn’t know why he lied, just for some reason he felt like he needed to back Spidey up- hell, he wasn’t even one hundred percent certain that the kid was Spider-Man (he was just ninety-eight percent certain- aka what we like to call _DENIAL_ ).

 

No one seemed to question it as they continued discussing the video.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Tony was able to come back, peacefully unaware of the chain of events that had just transpired due to his mistakenly thinking a literal sick child decided to go play around with chemicals.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_*Cue uncomfortable people looking upon a knocked-out Steve in the elevator after Spidey left him there*_

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!!<333
> 
> I honestly have no clue what this chapter even is, but... I have no excuses, I'm truly sorry.
> 
> Also, I feel like I should just say that Steve is one of my favourite characters, and I feel so freaking bad about how much I make him suffer lmao this poor guy doesn't deserve it. 
> 
> Sidenote: I know he's a lil ooc in these fics, but that's cuz I'm writing him from Peter's pov, cuz I don't see many fics where Steve is 'the PSA guy' to Peter, and it's really fun to write, so that's why my writing of Steve is mostly based on the PSA's- I hope u guy's don't mind! uwu <333


	12. "Look there's a bird dude, it knows whats good"  Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> absolutely no logic? in my fanfic?
> 
> it's more likely than you think.
> 
> but seriously, everyone is collectively sharing the same three braincells in this fic, and if ya'll have made it this far, then ur already used to my shitty writing, sooooo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm baaaaaaack
> 
> yeah, sorry I was gone for like, three weeks, I totally planned on writing a new chapter before school started, but then I ended up watching icarly instead in my spare time, and then school started, and is literal hell, so I had literally no motivation to write, and then I wrote all day yesterday, and yea, here u guys go. 
> 
> this chapter ended up being super long for literally no reason tho, like idk man??? so i split it into two parts cuz I didn't feel like editing it all tonight, also it'd be super random to have my normal 3000-4000 word chapters, and then suddenly I post a 9000 word chapter???
> 
> yea so part 2 is already written, and I'll put it up some time later...

 

Sam wasn’t afraid of spiders- yes, he had an awareness of them, but a fear? Nah.

 

Spider- _ Man _  on the other hand, was an entirely different story, because y’ see, although he was close friends with Spider-Man, that didn’t mean he wasn’t afraid of him from time-to-time, and he was kind of a little shit on more occasions than one. 

 

But you may be wondering, ‘in what situations would Sam be afraid of Spider-Man?’

 

Well, y’ know how Spidey can climb walls and stuff?

 

Yeah, super-cool in theory when you're the one with the powers, but for everyone else, it’s just nightmare fuel, no matter where or when you use it, it doesn’t stop becoming frightening. Sam was thankful that the arachnid had chosen such bold colours for his suit since it would likely be much more frightening if he had chosen to darker colours.

 

Another frightening thing was the stuff he said. It wasn’t all weird, just sometimes he would start spouting nonsense as if he was just possessed, and then return to completely normal language as if nothing strange had just occurred. And say what you will about that, but it became frightening after a while- especially after spending the night watching horror movies, and then for some brightly coloured freak to come in and start sounding like the devil’s child himself? That was some freaky shit.

 

That wasn’t even including the random times he wasn’t entirely sure if they were dreams or not. 

 

Like that time he had come in for a glass of water at four am, and Spider-Man was standing on the countertop playing the ukulele. Sam had simply given up and gone back to bed after seeing that.

 

So yeah, he was probably more afraid of Spider-Man then he was afraid of actual spiders.

 

* * *

 

The Avengers were left with the question that no one ever seemed able to answer: what did Spider-Man do for a living? Besides vigilante work, that is.

 

It was just a little bit odd. They knew his general age, and they knew he had a wife, as well as a son whom they had met. And besides that? Well, he tended to overshare, so they knew a lot of other stuff about him too, but strangely enough, where he worked was something that had never come up, and something that he never had slipped up on before- which, knowing him, was very strange on its own.

 

So really it was anyone’s best guess as to what Spider-Man did. Sam was aware that he had some pretty good skills when it came to working with tech, and if their first battle in the airport was anything to go off by, he was pretty knowledgeable about the subject as well- he wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Spider-Man built his own suit. 

 

He didn’t know very much about the man’s origin other than being requited by Tony, so it was likely that Spidey had been a successful worker at SI- at least that was just his personal theory- but considering they didn’t know much about him otherwise, Sam had to say it was a pretty solid theory.

 

This had never really raised any doubts in the man's loyalties though, since Sam did realize that probably most of what Spider-Man did, and who he was was most likely going to remain a mystery to him for at least a pretty good while longer, but he also knew that considering Spidey’s previous record of being awful with secrets (*cough his family cough*) he’d probably find out sooner rather than later, but until then he was fine to wait.

 

* * *

 

Steve had called an Avengers meeting that morning, and had even asked Tony to contact Spider-Man, which at first the man was strongly against, saying that ‘despite what they might think, Spider-Man still had a life outside the Avengers, and they couldn’t just bring him there on a weekday morning as if he didn’t have a job’, but eventually he caved and asked Spider-Man to come in the early afternoon.

 

So they were all now seated in the meeting room, waiting for the vigilante to make his appearance, which of course he did come, through the window, and with a flip even though it completely unnecessary- so it was pretty much in typical Spider-Man fashion.

 

“Sup guys,” he greeted before taking a seat in-between Tony and Wanda.

 

“Good to see you Spider-Man,” Steve acknowledged. “Thank you for interrupting your day to come here so short notice too.”

 

“Eh, this was more interesting anyway- so what’s goin’ on?”

 

“There’s been a robbing from the D.O.D.C,” Steve explained. “And we’ve been asked to send a few people to inspect the place.”

 

“What? It’s been robbed? But, it’s one of the most secure places in the world. It’s impossible to get in, and even then, once you’re in, you can’t get out again,” Tony defended.

 

“I don’t know what to tell you, but they don’t know how it happened yet either, they only just sent me the message, but it seems to be real from the information I’ve gathered.”

 

“Alright, fine. But why do they need us for it? Don’t they have people qualified for this? The FBI, or, oh I don’t know, S.H.I.E.L.D? We aren’t exactly detectives.”

 

"Wait- hold up, what's the D.O.D-whatever?" Spider-Man interrupted, raising his hand.

 

"The 'Department of Damage Control'," Tony answered. "They gather all the alien tech left over from battles, and store them somewhere safe so incidents like Homecoming don't happen, unlike they unfortunately did. So now they need help finding more people who stole from them?"

 

Steve hesitated for a second as he looked down to re-read the report he was holding, debating whether or not he could explain something that hardly made sense to  _ him _ .

 

“They don’t want us there to find the thieves, they only were asking for help in figuring out how they escaped, since it  _ should _  be impossible…”

 

“So I guess that means that I’m going to help with the tech, right? I think Nat, Vision, and Clint would also be helpful if they wanted to come-“ Tony glanced at the people mentioned, who returned his questioning glance with a small nod of agreement. “-All right, it’s decided then. Let them know we’ll be there soon to help-“

 

“Tony, they don’t want  _ our _  help in figuring out how they escaped, they want one of us there as a security escort for  _ him _ ,” Steve explain gesturing towards Spider-Man, who sunk in his seat as everyone turned to him in surprise.

 

The Spider just seemed to grow smaller under the stares of the Avengers as they all continued to look at him in stunned silence.

 

“And why  _ the fuck _  would they ask specifically for  _ him _ ?” Tony finally asked, his voice slightly threatening to the web-slinger.

 

“Well-“ Steve gave Spider-Man an apologetic wince before he continued, trying his hardest to ignore as Spidey frantically shook his head ‘no’ in a desperate attempt to get Cap to stop talking. 

 

But despite his best silent efforts, Steve continued with his report.

 

“It seems that- and I don’t know if this is true- but it seems like Spider-Man is the only person ever to have previously broken into, and out of the facility completely undetected. In fact, they only recently discovered the incident when reviewing past malfunctions. Either way, they would like his assistance now, so they could figure out a way to make the base more secure, as long as he comes escorted by an Avenger to ensure he stays in-line,” Steve finished, as he folded up the letter again, the room still emanating silence, but filled with confusion of the words he just finished reading.

 

“So,” Sam finally broke the silence after what felt like forever. “How’d you break into the place?”

 

“Sam,” Steve reprimanded.

 

“Seriously Steve? This guy manages to break into one of the most secure buildings around, and I can’t ask him about it?”

 

“It was probably just a mistake, I don’t think Spider-Man was the one who broke in- maybe a camera error or something. Someone could’ve set it up to frame him, probably the same people who broke in last night. Don't worry Spidey, I’ll call back and explain what happened- it happened during the night, and since you’re out in Queens pretty much every night, we’ll just have to find someone you saved that night for an alibi. I’ll double-check the exact date that night, and then-“

 

“I don’t have an alibi as Spider-Man that night…”

 

“Oh, well I’m sure we can still figure it out-“

 

“Nah, um… see, the thing is… I- I might’ve, kinda, sorta actually  _ been _  in the storage vault that night…”

 

If there hadn’t been enough awkward silences already during this meeting, there certainly was now.

 

Tony stood up.

 

“You did  _ what _ ?”

 

“…I, uh, it was an accident?”

 

“Fri, bring up the baby monitor protocol, for-“

 

“WAIT, Mr. Stark don’t- Friday cancel that order please!” Spider-Man screeched, jumping to his feet (on top of his chair) with renewed energy as his eyes widened to a comical amount. “Mr. Stark, you can’t,  _ please-  _ not in front of everyone _. _ ”

 

“Uh, I think I can, considering you decided to keep this from me for how long, exactly? Since Washington, I’m guessing?”

 

“I never  _ kept _  it from you, you just never saw the videos, so really, you should’ve been paying more attention.”

 

Tony’s facial expression resulted in pretty much the entire room being scared for Spider-Man’s well-being, so Spidey quickly responded with “I take the back,” as Tony turned and started pacing around the room as he dragged his hand over his face. “Look, I’ll explain everything to you later, I promise.”

 

“Um, ok then,” Steve smattered, still trying to hide his shock as he stared at Spidey who was trying to keep his balance as he stood on his swivel chair that was turning itself around very slowly. “Well then, they would like your help with figuring out how they broke in and out since you’re the only other person to successfully do it, apparently.”

 

“Cool…”

 

“So… should I tell them you accept?”

 

“I’ll need to ask M-my roommate, but I’m pretty sure I can go.”

 

“Why do you need to ask your roommate?” Wanda asked in confusion, while Clint just laughed.

 

“I get it, I always have to ask my  _ ‘roommate _ ’ before I go somewhere.”

 

“Clint, don’t refer to your wife as your roommate, it’s weird,” Sam commented.

 

“Comm'n,  _ he _  gets to do it.”

 

“That’s cuz  _ he _  has a secret identity.”

 

The conversation was interrupted by a showy display of flailing arms, followed by a large  _ bang _  as Spidey fell from his chair onto the floor, and Steve rushed to his side. 

 

“Spider-Man, are you ok?”

 

“I swear, if the next PSA is about safety with chairs, I’m going to kill you,” he muttered only loud enough for the captain to hear his threat as he helped him to his feet.

 

“T-thanks… I’m just gonna go call my… wife, I guess,” he announced as he dejectedly left the room.

 

“Y’ know what, I’m coming too just so you can explain what exactly happened,” Tony announced, following Spidey out the room in a determined fashion.

 

 

They all watched as the two left the room, waiting a few moments in silence before Steve cleared his throat to gather their attention.

 

“I know Spider-Man does trust us all to a degree, but we should all remember that he still wishes for his identity to remain a secret, and although we’ve come to know a lot about his personal life in the time we’ve met him, he still seems uncomfortable when we mention things like his family, so maybe we could all lay off him a bit?”

 

There were some nods and murmurs of agreement around the room.

 

“Still though,” Steve continued, “it goes both ways. While we’ve learned to trust him, there still is a lot that we don’t know about not only his personal life but his life as a vigilante hero, since not even Tony knew about his little excursion into the storage facility. I’m not saying he did something wrong, but I do think it might be best to keep an eye on him.”

 “I don’t think he’s much of a threat Steve,” Rhodey defended. “Besides, I’m sure Tony will keep him in check if Spidey does agree to go.”

 

“Rhodey, as much as I’d like to believe that, I think Steve is right,” Sam joined in. “If I’m being honest, I know more about his personal life then his hero situation. I mean, we all know Stark made the suit, but who was he before? Did Stark choose him to wear the suit when he needed backup, or was he doing that before?”

 

“And we all know he was invited to be an Avenger but turned it down,” Wanda added. “But we don’t know why he didn’t want to join, or how the position was offered to him in the first place.”

 

“I believe I can answer that first part,” Vision spoke up. “Spider-Man was offered a spot on the team after taking down Adrian Toomes, otherwise known as ‘the Vulture’. I, however, do not know why he turned down the spot, or how he became involved in the situation to start.”

 

“Whose ‘the Vulture’?” Clint asked skeptically.

 

“Well, you and Sam took all the other good bird names, you’d have to expect a ‘Vulture’ sooner or later,” Natasha joked, resulting in the two men in question glaring at her, as Steve took out his phone to search up the name Vision had given him.

 

“He crashed a plane, apparently,” Steve informed, after reading the first line of the old-ish news article. “Not, just any plane- it was Tony’s plane, one full of our equipment. Says he was stopped by Spidey.”

 

“Woah, did Stark put Spidey on the plane for security escort or something?” Sam asked.

 

“The article doesn’t say- probably though, after all, it was full of his tech, and I don’t see how else Spidey would’ve gotten on that plane, the Vulture can fly, after all, so he probably infiltrated it during flight. I wonder if Tony knew about it and planned it as a test to see if he was ready for the Avengers.”

 

“Lemme see it for a sec,” Sam said, grabbing the phone out of Steve’s hand. 

 

“It says this guy was also the maker and seller of high-tech weapons.”

 “That’s true,” Vision confirmed. “I heard that the weapons were built using some of the alien technology that resulted from previous battles.”

 

“What? But I thought those were all destroyed or locked up, or  _ something _ ,” Clint responded confusedly.

 

“They _  are _ ,” Steve confirmed. “The D.O.D.C- it’s supposed to be impossible to break into though, so how did they get the tech?”

 

The room went silent for a moment as everyone considered this, but it wasn’t long before they’d all come to the same realization.

 

“Uh, guys,” Sam finally broke the silence. “Spider-Man was the only person to ever get in, and out… you don’t think that maybe,  _ he _  could’ve been working with that guy?”

 

“Come on Sam, you know that’s not true,” Clint said a little too soon. “We know the guy, he wouldn’t do that.”

 

“We don’t know that he wouldn’t do it,” Natasha pointed out. “Think about it- he’s skilled in infiltrating places, he has a high-tech suit specifically designed with powers that are useful for sneaking around, Stark had found him somehow, and I wouldn’t put it past him to use blackmail to get his help, and then what? He somehow gets an invitation to join the Avengers after taking down ‘the Vulture’, inside a moving  _ plane _ , no less, meaning Tony either placed him there as security, or he was somehow aware of the plan before and managed to catch a ride there. I’m sorry, but the odds aren’t exactly in his favour.”

 

“Seriously Nat? Those could easily all be explained-“

 

“She's right Clint,” Steve interrupted. “This has raised a lot of suspicion with Spider-Man. I’ve checked the dates that the storage security gave me, and it turns out he was in Washington the next day, saving people from some explosion that they still haven’t found the source for, but from the way it was described, it sounds a lot like alien tech, which would’ve had no way to be there unless some random civilian just so happened to be carrying it around with no suspicion being cast.”

 

“Woah, ok, saying he was teamed up with the Vulture or whatever is one thing, but you’re saying that he purposely bombed a national monument just to play hero is something else entirely. Are you saying he’s a terrorist?”

 

“No, of course not, I doubt he’d do something like that, and despite what we’re saying, I think most of us still trust him with our lives. All we’re saying is that we understand why they requested our help with a little extra security,” Steve explained. “That being said, I don’t think Tony should be the one to take him for obvious reasons. They requested that one of us should accompany him- any takers?”

 

“I can go,” Sam volunteered.

 

“Great, thank you, Sam, Now we just have to wait for Spider-Man’s response, and I’ll let them know you're on your way.”

 

* * *

 

Sam had always had his suspicions about Spider-Man, and yes, he did consider him a close friend, even if he  _ was _  a little piece of shit sometimes, but that didn’t stop the questions from being raised, and after their meeting that afternoon, even more, questions were being raised, and none of the possible answers they’d come up with had been appealing, so they had been ignored- but as much as he tried to ignore the possibilities, there were still there in the back of his mind, even though when he looked at the man wearing brightly-coloured spandex, it was very hard to take seriously the uncertainty of where Spider-Man’s loyalties lie in both the present and past.

 

They were now on their way to the storage facility using the Avenger’s jet since apparently Spider-Man had gotten the ‘go-ahead’ from his wife. 

 

Sam had planned to subtly interrogate Spider-Man on the subject of the vulture, but the man seemed much more inclined to spend the duration of the flight half-freaking out.

 

“I really hate planes,” he explained to Sam as they were landing.

 

 “You didn’t seem to get that sick during the flight,” Sam commented, not particularly interested in what the man was saying.

 

“Yeah, it’s not that, it’s mostly just like, you never know when they’re gonna crash or something.”

 

“Do you know how rarely these things crash?”

 

“I don’t think you know how often lives are affected by plane crashes,” Spider-Man responded with vague sadness that Sam tried hard to ignore, but even afterward found it hard to forget.

 

They landed at a local airport and were picked up by a security worker from D.O.D.C, driving about an hour before the reached the large secure buildings.

 

“Never thought I’d be here again,” Spider-Man muttered under his breath.

 

“Why  _ were _  you here exactly?” Sam questioned.

 

“It’s sorta a long story, but basically I ended up stuck inside one of their trucks by mistake.”

 

“How do you end up in a truck from one of the most highly secure companies ‘by mistake’?”

 

“It’s a long story,” Spider-Man brushed off as the car came to a stop, and the doors were opened for them to get out.

 

They stepped outside to be greeted by an older woman who introduced herself as Anne Marie Hoag and thanked them for coming.

 

“After we found out about the break-in last night, we scoured all of our video records of anything unusual in the system, and that’s how we came across the record of the doors to the vault opening hours before it usually did- and when we watched the video, we were all very surprised to see it was none other than Spider-Man,” She commented as they followed her through the facility towards where the break-in happened.

 

“So that raised the question of how you got in there in the first place, and how you managed to get out.”

 

“Oh, that’s easy. So I was actually chasing down this Vulture guy, right?”

 

“You mean Adrian Toomes?”

 

“Yeah- you know him?”

 

“We were informed he’d been stealing from us after you caught him. We’re grateful that you were able to stop him, those weapons were dangerous in the wrong hands, and risky even if they were with trusted people.”

 

“Oh, yeah, uh, thanks it wasn’t really a big deal or anything, but um yeah… so like, I was tracking him, so they were at this gas station, and then the trucks with everything went by, so the vulture guy went after them, so I followed him, and anyway, there were these glowy-purple things that made us able to fall through the top of the truck, but then he sorta hit me, and I fell into the truck, and then he took away those phase-matter-shifty-things, so I was stuck inside,” he finished.

 

“Seriously? You were stuck inside and you didn’t call for help?” Sam laughed.

 

“Well, I sorta knocked myself out cuz I didn’t realize he’d taken those stones away, and I jumped into the top of the truck and blacked out,” Spidey mumbled, obviously trying to keep anyone else from hearing.

 

“Yep, that seems about right for you.”

 

“H-hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Spider-Man hissed at Sam as Anne Marie asked how he managed to get out.

 

“Oh, uh, y’ know the keypad near the top of the door?” He waited for her to nod in acknowledgment before continuing, “I climbed up there and hacked into it, then just tried every combination until I found one that worked.”

 

Both of the adults turned to look at him in disbelief.

 

“What?”

 

“You went through every combination you could think of instead of just waiting for them to open on their own?”

 

“I didn’t go through  _ every _  combination- I only went through them until one worked- also I had a pencil and paper with me, so it wasn’t like I was just typing it randomly-”

 

“What did you have a pencil and paper with you? Did you go there to study or something?”

 

“Yes, I brought all my study supplies to the D.O.D.C, because the quiet atmosphere makes it great for focusing.”

 

“Don’t use sarcasm with me you little shit- I can still kick your ass, and I can do it without a fancy suit, unlike you.”

 

“I could take you down without my suit, who do you think I am?”

 

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but is this a necessary conversation right now?” Anne Marie injected.

 

“Sorry Ma’am,” Spidey said immediately, hanging his head in shame as Sam also apologized.

 

“Right, now I doubt the thief came or exited in the same ways you did, but maybe you can offer us a view that others cannot,” she explained as they arrived at the area which had been broken into.

 

“We do have Shield and the FBI also looking into this, so if you find anything of interest, please report it to one of them, and inform me of when you plan to leave.”

 

She waited until both of the heroes agreed, before turning back the way they had come.

 

Sam looked down at Spider-Man. “Well, what now?”

 

“Uhm, I guess we just look around? I’ll head up on the walls to look around I guess?”

 

“Sounds good, but I’m still your security escort, so how am I supposed to follow you without my wings?”

 

“Uhhh- oh! Hold on one sec,” Spidey said before jolting away, leaving Sam in dread of what might come next.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for sticking around this far!!!! You guys are seriously awesome, all your support is so super nice???? 
> 
> I'm really sorry that I'm not great at replying tho, I'm just really busy w/ school, and I honestly forget if I've replied to you or not, so it's nothing personal!!! I read (and re-read) all your comments- they seriously motivate me to keep this story going, so thank you!!!!


	13. "Look there's a bird dude, it knows whats good"  Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part- 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter! Thank you so much for everyone whose stuck around for this fic, it was really fun to write, and I hope you've enjoyed it!!! 
> 
> There's one more fic left in this series that I'm planning to write, so I hope you'll consider staying for the final part!!
> 
> Also I didn't beta read this chapter (haha, like that was ever a thing) cuz it's 4 am and I have school, and I just finished studying, so yea- GUESS WHOS READY TO DIE???? 
> 
> anyway, so please just ignore it, sorry abt that guys

“Nope, no, no way,” Sam disagreed firmly.

 

“Sam, I’m just trying to help out the greater good- it’s for the greater good!”

 

“If the greater good considers it necessary for me to be strapped to your back as you climb around the room for the freakin’ FBI and Shield agents to see, then consider this my villain origin story.”

 

“I don’t wanna cause a scene, just let me strap you on- it’ll be completely safe, I promise.”

 

“Ok, firstly, I have no idea what you consider ‘making a scene’, since I’m pretty sure that attaching me to your back like one of those fucking baby carriers would cause a much greater scene than us arguing, and secondly, it’s not the safety part that makes me not want to do this- hell, I’d rather jump off a cliff right now.”

 

“Well there aren’t any cliffs around, so you better get used to being attached.”

 

“Look, I get your a father, and are used to embarrassing anyone younger than you-“

 

“-Hey, hey, wait, since when were  _ you _  younger than  _ me? _ ”

 

“It’s sorta obvious, no offence. And I get that carrying a human on your back is something you’ve gotten used to as a father-“

 

“-Yep, I’m a father-“

 

“But I’m not a child, so there’s no way in hell I’m getting strapped to your back.”

 

“Ok, so I’d just like to take this opportunity to say that this is by far one of the strangest arguments I’ve had, and also- would you consider it better if you were being carried as a piggyback rather than being strapped on?”

 

“…You’re going to be carrying me up there one way or another, aren’t you?” Sam realized in defeat.

 

“Yes, yes I am.”

 

* * *

 

Sam chose to go up piggyback style, since at least there was the slightest bit of dignity left, considering he was the one holding on rather than being strapped on. He tried to ignore the stares of the detectives currently inspecting the room, grateful that this place was high-security and no footage could be taken of him and Spider-Man.

 

It was kinda fun to be up there, and even though he’d never admit it out loud, he was enjoying it for the most part, sans the times where Spider-Man just started climbing while upside-down. Though it had been almost thirty minutes, and his arms were killing him from having to hold on consistently. 

 

Spidey had offered a few times to grab the safety ropes to secure him so he wouldn’t have to keep holding on himself, but he had been refusing to at least keep whatever remaining dignity he had. Spider-Man then suggested that he just quickly use his webs to attach them together, but after remembering that it took around three hours for his webs to dissolve, Sam decided that he didn’t want to spend three hours of his life glued to a Spider-obsessed dad.

 

Just as he was considering to finally relent and ask Spidey to go back down for the ropes, he heard the man make a small gasp in surprise and quickly started crawling towards a higher part of the wall.

 

“What is it?” He asked, leaning over Spidey’s shoulder to see what the man was headed towards, but it only seemed to be ceiling up ahead. 

 

_ Oh Shit. _

 

“Nope, Spidey- tell me we aren’t going on the ceiling.”

 

He wasn’t comforted as the man remained silent and continued his course upwards.

 

“Spidey?”

 

“We’re going on the ceiling,” Spider-Man confirmed.

 

“I told you not to tell me!”

 

“Well I’m not about to fall for a dialogue cliché, I’ll tell you that much,” Spider-Man Said as he continued upwards, until his hand touched the ceiling, then his other hand, his foot, and his other foot, not that Sam could see, since he was busy holding on for dear life to the man who seemed to be pardoned by gravity, while he was suffering as gravity was currently trying to kill him. He shut his eyes tightly and focused on hanging on.

 

“Sam, do you see that?” The arachnid asked as he slowed to a stop.

 

“I currently have my eyes closed,” Sam informed, his voice strained from the effort it took to hold on.

 

“Well, open them,” he commanded, slightly annoyed, leaving Sam to wonder if this was his ‘dad voice’. “Y’ see that vent up there?”

 

Sam finally gave up and opened his eyes to look at the vent.

 

“Yeah- you think they got in through there? It looks perfect though.”

 

“No… those cracks on the side, don’t they look a little purple?”

 

“Uhm, sure? Is this important?”

 

“I just sorta remind me of something- hold on, I’m going in closer…”

 

“Oh yippee.”

 

Spider-Man crawled until he was right next to one of the cracks, and leaned in closer to inspect one of the cracks, forcing Sam to take a closer look as well.

 

“What do you think?” He asked after inspecting them for a few seconds.

 

Sam stared dulling at the cracks. “I dunno. I guess they seem purple? I honestly don’t know what you want me to say,” he admitted tiredly.

 

“Nononono, that’s fine- but they do look purple, right? Hold one lemme take a pic of this… He said and absently got up from his crawling position into a standing one, forgetting in the process, that he had someone who was hanging on his back at the moment who was about to be brutally tossed around by gravity.

 

The sudden movement of Spider-Man standing, coupled with Sam’s already exhausted muscles from holding on for so long, resulted in Sam being almost immediately flung from the arachnid’s personage, down towards the floor.

 

“SPIDEEEY!” He called out before he heard a  _ thwip _ , and felt as his foot was caught from something above, leaving him dangling from a web.

 

“Don’t worry, I gotcha,” Spidey called from above, slowly pulling him up towards the ceiling again. Spider-Man pulled him up until he was able to hold him by his feet, which was awkward for both of them, but neither complained, so Spidey just continued his investigation while Sam hung there like a bat, becoming increasingly dizzy as all the blood rushed to his head.

 

“Are you almost done up there?” He asked becoming slightly impatient.

 

“Yeah, but the Internet is really bad in here- I forgot that they disable any sort of connections in here,” he explained with a laugh.

 

“Let me get this straight- you’ve been dangling me here for the past few minutes, just because you were trying to text?”

 

“No, well, yes- I was texting Ned cuz I needed to see what he thought about these cracks since this one time in Washington-“

 

“-Hold on… you were texting your  _ son _ , a  _ child,  _ to get his opinion on something as serious as  _ this _ ?”

 

“He’s not a  _ ‘child’ _ , he’s sixteen-“

 

“Aren’t teenagers pretty much worse? They’re always having mood swings and shit.”

 

“I could drop you right now if I wanted.”

 

“Please don’t- I just need to be right-side-up, I’m starting to see black.”

 

“Fine,” he relented, helping Sam rotate until they were holding each other by the hands.

 

“Ok, but seriously, these cracks remind of the damage that Jitari energy-core-bomb-things result in.”

 

“What bombs?”

 

“These alien purple glowy-thingy’s,” Spider-Man explained. “They explode when exposed to radiation and can cause a lot of damage… But this place is secure and well built, the bombs are powerful, but if whoever broke in found a way to make them less powerful, then depending on how strong they made the ventilation system, they would be able to wipe out a clear path to where they needed to go, with making minimal damage to the actual structure, so it would mostly go unnoticed, especially in high ceilings like these… hm…”

 

“Hm? What’s the ‘hm’ for?”

 

“Let’s get inside these vents.”

 

“What the fu- no, no, let’s  _ not _ .”

 

“Sam, we’ve been trained by Clint, the very king of ventilation systems himself- I think we can do this.”

 

“Yeah, sure, it doesn’t matter what I say, does it?”

 

“Nope, we’re going in,” Spidey confirmed happily as he tore the vent cover off, and webbed it to the ceiling.

 

“Ok, Sam- you first,” he announced as he slowly lifted Sam upwards, the man, too broken to argue, allowed himself to be shoved inside the vent. Thankfully, the ventilation became horizontal, so he was able to sit down and gather himself on more-or-less solid ground. Peering around at his surroundings, he realized that the spider might be onto something, the overall tinge of the metal around them was a purplish colour, making him highly doubt that crawling around in there would be safe.

 

He looked down through the vent opening where Spidey was staring up at him.

 

“Look, there’s a bird dude, and it knows what’s good.”

 

“ _ What? _ ”

 

“You’re a bird in the vent! Get it? Cuz you’re a falcon?”

 

“You’re getting way too excited, and I have no clue why you’re even excited. Just come up, it was your idea in the first place, may I remind you.”

 

“Yeah, fine, I’m coming,” he grumbled as he crawled up and joined Sam, the two sitting cross-legged, facing each other.

 

“Bro, this would make an awesome clubhouse.”

 

“That’s your priority right now?”

 

“I didn’t say it was my priority, I was just making conversation.”

 

“…If this was a clubhouse, there’d be food.”

 

“I brought some food for the trip, but I left it in my bag,” Spider-Man said sadly.

 

“Damn, I would’ve actually been glad to set up a clubhouse for once, I’m so freaking hungry.”

 

“Yeah, well at least you don’t have super-metabolism.”

 

“True, I’d hate to be Steve stuck up here.”

 

“Yeah, but we aren’t stuck-“

 

“It’s more fun if we pretend we’re stuck.”

 

“Since when did I become the responsible one?”

 

“Aren’t you a father? You’re supposed to be responsible.”

 “Ugh, fine. Come on, let’s see where these vents lead,” Spidey said, pushing past Sam to take the lead, while Sam followed after him.

 

Thankfully, the ventilation system was quite large, so there were few areas where they had the fear of getting stuck as they travelled through. It was tiring work, and if not for the trail of purple cracks to follow, they probably would’ve been lost (they had already gotten lost more than a few times, and had to turn around).

 

Soon enough though, the vents became lighter, and finally, they found the opening, which Spidey pushed open, and without hesitation, jumped out.

 

“Agk!” Sam heard Spider-Man screech, as a  _ thwip  _ sound came shortly after, and Spidey’s head reappeared next to the vent, his eyes comically wide.

 

“Don’t jump out,” he warned, slightly out of breath.

 

“I wasn’t exactly planning on it,” Sam commented. “How high up are we?”

 

“Not sure- like,  _ very _  high though. I wouldn’t recommend trying to jump down from here.”

 

“Yeah, again, I wasn’t planning on it.”

 

“The is definitely where they broke in though, it seems like the perfect place.”

 

“How’d they get this high though?”

 

“Well, seeing as the same people had absolutely no troubles coming down from the ceiling, I’m pretty sure they’d know a way to climb up this high without detection.”

 

Sam thought for a moment until he had a sudden revelation.

 “It was pretty easy for  _ you _  to do all this, right?”

 “Hey- ok, I know what this looks like, but I honestly ended up here by accident, I swear.”

 

“Yeah, I know that,” Sam waved off, though not fully believing the man who had just needlessly defended himself. “I’m saying you’re tech makes this easy to do- like your sticky gloves? What if someone managed to copy them?”

 

“I don’t know… I don’t really think it’s possible to recreate my stickiness…”

 

“Everyone tries to copy the Avengers at one point or another, it was only a matter of time before someone copied you.”

 

“Yeah, but I just don’t think tech that helps people stick to walls is around yet.”

 

“ _ You _  have it.”

 

“I guess, but um, it’s kinda a long story…”

 

“We have the time…”

 

Spider-Man averted eye contact, and looked down, clearly avoiding something. They stayed there for an amount of time that wasn’t counted, but seemed to go by fast, while still feeling like they had been there for hours like that, a gentle breeze blowing past them as the sun lowered in the sky, probably the only thing in that scene paying attention to the passage of time.

 

Spider-Man finally cleared his throat to bring them both to attention. 

 

“We should- we should probably head back now and tell them what we’ve found,” he reminded.

 

“Ye-yeah, let’s go,” Sam agreed, snapping back to reality, and helping the spider back inside the vent. 

 

They crawled in silence for a few moments before Sam finally started asking questions again, though after only a couple of questions he stopped, realizing that the man didn’t want to give up the truth on how he’d gotten his start on the vigilante business. The most Sam ended up getting from him was some off-hand joke about being bitten by a spider and gaining superpowers.

 

Finally, the two men arrived back at where they had started, and Spider-Man lowered Sam all the way to the ground using his webs as a rope, before joining him as well on solid ground, and were immediately surrounded by security guards along with Anne Marie, who seemed more relieved and tired than alert and dignified at the moment.

 

“Where were you? Everyone said you disappeared from the facility around two hours ago,” she explained in slight annoyance.

 

“Sorry Ma’am, we were in the vents,” Spider-Man explained, pointing up at where they had exited from, just as the webbing that had been keeping the vent cover in place leaked after the two hours finally gave out, causing it to fall, sounding a crash that echoed throughout the large warehouse, resulting in everyone in the room to quickly place their hands over their ears until the banging subsided.

 

“Well, that was loud,” Sam commented as he looked down at Spidey, who still had his hands over his ears, as well as his eyes shut while he was sitting on the floor. “Dude, it’s over now,” he said, nudging Spider-Man with his foot.

 

He watched as Spider-Man’s eye’s slowly reopened, and he stood up a little shakily before brushing himself off and attempting to regain the composure that he had never possessed.

 

“Sorry, I forgot about that…” He mumbled before giving Anne Marie the run-down on what they had come across.

 

“Thank you both for your assistance today, and perhaps we’ll work together again one day,” Anne Marie said as she began to walk them out. “Just please, Spider-Man, don’t break into our facilities ever again.”

 

“Yeah, trust me, it’s not something I want to happen again,” he promised.

 

They said their goodbyes, and soon were being driven back to the airport. It was already dark outside by the time they left the facility, and neither of them had eaten since before they left (well, not an actual meal- Spider-Man had brought an insane amount of granola bars which he had been sharing with Sam, but Spider-Man was apparently starving, and somehow managed to eat most of them), and seeing that they would still need to wait a bit until they received the proper airspace clearance to lift-off, it could be quite a while before they actually got some real food.

 

“Hey Spidey, you wanna stop for dinner before we fly back?” He offered.

 

“Oh, I um, I don’t have any money, sorry. But I’ll wait for you to stop and get something.”

 

“Nah it’s fine, I’ll pay now, and you’ll pay me back later.”

 

“I’m not that hungry though-“

 

“You were just talking about how you were starving a few minutes ago,” he reminded.

 

“Oh, yeah… right.”

 There was an awkward silence yet again as Sam felt Spider-Man’s tensity increase.

 

 “It’s just that it’d be weird, right?” He asked suddenly.

 

“Hm?”

 

“Like, you look normal and stuff, like people recognize you, and it’s like a celebrity or whatever, and I just feel a little strange being there in full costume while you’re all normal is what I mean.”

 

“I dunno, I don’t think it’s that weird- is that why you don’t want to come in?”

 “Ye-yeah. I mean sorta.”

 

“Don’t you have any spare clothes you can just put on or something?”

 “I still need my mask, don’t I?”

 Sam shrugged. “I don’t mind, it’s only me here after all.”

 

“Yeah, that’s the  _ point _ . Couldn’t we just stop at a drive-through or something?”

 

He rolled his eyes at this suggestion, only slightly hurt that Spider-Man still didn’t want him knowing his identity before spotting a mall up ahead, and asked the driver to stop there.

 

“I’m gonna go in quick and get something to eat,” he announced. “You want anything Spidey?”

 “No, I’m good, thanks though.”

“Lies.”

 

“Ok ok ok, um if they have Thai food, literally anything, I’m not picky.”

 

“Alright, I’ll be back soon,” Sam promised before stepping out.

 

* * *

 

He was not back soon.

 

If Peter hadn’t already hated sitting still, maybe it would’ve been fine, but considering he had  _ also _  had spent the day in confined spaces  _ and _  had also used his phone as a flashlight resulting in a low-battery, staying in the car was becoming unbearable. He had tried to talk to the driver, but he didn’t seem interested in conversing with Peter either, so finally, he resorted to going in the mall himself to get some food sooner than whatever Sam was trying to do.

 

Thankfully He was carrying some extra clothes with him- a blue flannel shirt, and some jeans-,so he left the car, and found a small section of trees that was hidden from sight, and threw on the clothes overtop of his suit, hoping that no one would notice his strange ’shoes’ since he hadn’t brought any runners to cover his suited feet, but didn’t bother buttoning up his top to hide the Spider-Suit, since he’d actually seen some merch of his recently, so it’d blend in pretty well anyways.

 

He finally took off his mask and threw it in his backpack, thankful to have it off for once, after having it on for most of the day. You really did notice how much easier breathing was when a layer if spandex wasn’t covering your face.

 

After quickly checking that the coast was clear to leave, he stepped out of the trees, and headed inside the mall, for once feeling slightly relieved that he looked just as normal as everyone else in the mall as he headed towards the food court.

 

He opted to just get some fries and a burger quickly so he could be back at the car by the time Sam got back. He took out his phone as he waited in line, promising himself he wouldn’t be more than fifteen minutes, when his spidey-senses went off, causing him to whip around in time to see several boxes of food fall towards him, and instinctively he reached out and caught them before they hit the ground.

 

“Oh my goodness, thank you,” a voice breathed from above him causing him to freeze.

 

Of course if the entire freaking mall of people, he managed to bump into the one person he was trying to avoid. Why is it that you can spend literal hours running around only a food court in a mall and still not find you’re friends, even when you had plans, but in less than five minutes you can also manage to find the one person you were trying to avoid? Another classic case of Parker luck.

 

* * *

 

Sam looked down at the kid in front of him and inwardly groaned. It had taken him a few seconds to realize why the kid was just standing there in complete shock when he saw the shirt the kid was wearing was Spider-Man’s symbol. Great, he’d just bumped into a superhero nerd- no wonder why he was star-struck after just bumping into an actual Avenger.

 

He waited a moment for the kid to speak, but finally realizing that he was in too much shock to respond, so he just thanked him again and grabbed the bags from him, for once openly admitting to himself that Spider-Man was right in his decision not to come in- that kid probably would’ve caused such a scene if he saw not only one, but two heroes, which would’ve resulted in more people noticing, and well, they would’ve been all over the news.

 

The kid nodded and slowly turned back around to face the counter and placed his food order as sam struggled to hold all the food he’d gotten for Spider-Man. Now that he was holding it all, he realized he had probably gone a little bit overboard, but it was too late now. He also didn’t even like Thai food, so it wasn’t like he wanted to eat some of it, hence why he was about to get some poutine for himself before heading back out to the car.

 

He was sorta stressing out with what he was going to do with all of Spider-Man’s food when he realized the solution was standing right in front of him.

 

“Hey kid,” he called out, and the spidey-shirt guy tensed up and turned to face him, his eyes wide in slight fear. He pointed a finger at himself and mouthed ‘me?’ Which Sam nodded to with a slight smile, as the kid awkwardly shuffled towards him, tugging at his other shirt to cover the Spider-Symbol.

 

“C-can I help you, sir?” The kid mumbled with a British accent, which sorta surprised Sam.

 

“Yeah, do you happen to like Thai food?” Sam asked, leaving the teen looking bewildered.

 “Um, yes?”

 

“Great, cuz I bought  _ way _  too much for my friend, and I kinda hate it myself, so what’ da say we have dinner together if you let me have what you ordered?”

 

“But don’t you have somewhere to be? You just said your friend was waiting for you.” The kid replied politely.

 

Sam realized that Spider-Man had been waiting over half an hour by now, though to be fair, it was all just waiting for his food, and he was also probably letting some random British kid live his ultimate dream of having dinner with an Avenger.

 

“Nah, he’ll be fine to wait- come’ on, you can’t say no to an Avenger.”

 

* * *

 

Peter, in fact, could not say no to an Avenger.

 

It was times like these that his inner fanboy came out again. He had experienced a mixture of relief and disappointment when Sam hadn’t recognized him, even when they had already met more than once when he was working in Mr. Stark’s lab, but then again, he did just randomly decide to use a British accent instead of just- lowering his voice a little bit so it’d be unrecognizable. To be fair, he never really had great instincts, with or without the spider-sense, but now he had to go through an entire conversation with Sam using an accent that admittedly wasn’t that convincing.

 

Sam handed him some of the take-out boxes to hold and grabbed the fries and burger that Peter had ordered and traded, and soon they were scouring the court for seating, which they easily found and sat at.

 

“You can take whatever seems good to you,” Sam offered as he unwrapped his burger. 

 

Peter realized that he’d end up eating all of the food anyway, so he just chose whichever container was easiest to grab and started eating. 

 

“Are you sure I can’t pay you back? It probably costed more than what I ordered,” Peter asked, even though he figured he’d be paying the same back no matter which name it was under.

 

“Nah, it’s fine kid, my friend will pay for it. So what’s your name anyway?”

 

“Um. Ned. Ned Jones,” he replied, sinking in his seat a little as he inwardly groaned at his ‘name’. That was incredibly smooth.

 

“So Ned, what school do you go to?

 

”I go to- I’m homeschooled, actually.”

 

Huh. He had barely said five sentences in total, and yet he was completely succeeding in being a fuck-up.

 

“Nice. So what is it you like doing?”

 

Sam was being incredibly nice considering he was just a random teenager right now, but Peter seriously needed him to stop taking a personal interest in him before he said he was into botany or something.

 

“I’m into botany,” he replied, wanting nothing more than to facepalm so hard, but he restrained himself and managed to ask a simple, general question about the Avengers instead, which Sam easily answered, so he decided to finally ask something he had wondered about for a while.

 

“So, how did you become an Avenger anyways? It seems kinda hard…”

 

Sam laughed a little and shrugged, “I don’t really know if it’s that hard, but I basically helped Steve take down Hydra, and from there on I just sorta joined the team.”

 

“How’d you meet Steve- uh I mean Mr. Rogers, or Captain Rogers, Captian Steve? Whatever- how’d you meet him?”

 

“I was out running one day, and we ended up talking,” he explained simply.

 

“Dude, Cap is like, a super-solider. How many times did he pass you?”

 

“…”

 

“How many times?”

 

“We’re not gonna talk about that, anyways-“

 

“-Ok but quick question, have you ever beat Steve in anything?”

 

“I can fly,” Sam quickly said in defence. “Whereas that dumbass just jumps out of planes without parachutes.”

 

“Hm, valid.”

 

_ “Thank you _ . No one else on the team sees the problem with him doing that, and I’m not even joking. We need someone like you on the team.”

 

“Haha, I-I wish I could join.”

 

“Well, who knows. All it took for me to join is some training and an overactive hundred-year-old, you never really know what’ll come in life.”

 

“Ye-yeah, thanks.”

 

_ And yet I have superpowers but an overprotective Avenger stopping me from joining _ , he thought to himself.

 

“Now as much as I’d like to stay and chat, I gotta get back before Spidey decides to leave without me,” Sam declared, getting up from his seat.

 

“Oh, right, of course- thank you so much Mr. Wilson- or wait, is it colonel-“

 

“-You can just call me Sam,” he offered, stopping Peter from beginning to ramble.

 

“Wow, um, thank you, sir.”

 

“It’s no problem, thanks for saving Spider-Man’s dinner... by the way, I know you’re just being polite, but if you wanna take a picture with me, that's totally fine.”

 

“Really?” Peter jumped up way too excitedly as if he didn’t see Sam regularly. The man laughed as he watched Peter fumble for his phone so they could take a picture together.

 

“Thank you so much sir, and um, safe travels,” he said after safely tucking his phone away, relieved that it was almost all over, while at the same time slightly disappointed since it had surprisingly been fun.

 

“Thanks kid, have a good night,” Sam in goodbye.

 

Peter stayed seated for a few seconds until Sam was lost in the crowd before darting away at an ungodly speed so he could change, and get to the car before Sam did.

 

He managed to change and pack up his backpack just in time to see Sam exit the doors to the mall. Crouching down lower to the ground, Peter made a desperate run for the car, flinging open the door, and shoving his backpack in, barely in time to flop in himself, and shut his eyes, pretending to sleep, and feeling very similar to all those nights when he was nine, where he’d been staying up on his DS late, and tried to hide that he was awake when May came to check on him.

 

* * *

 

It was strange, as much as Sam loved talking to fans (especially kids and teens), there was something about Ned Jones that he found comforting. Their conversation had been awkward in the beginning, sure, but eventually, it became pretty relaxed, and he had actually enjoyed it more than he thought. 

 

He was slightly regretting it now though as he realized he had made Spider-Man wait for a little over an hour for food, hopefully, that man wasn’t too angry.

 

Thankfully, the car was still there which was a relief, since he had been sincerely concerned that they might leave without him. He threw open the back door to see Spider-Man sprawled out across the back seat, with his legs sticking out the other side of the door, with his eyes shut completely, which he assumed meant that the spider was sleeping, though he had to admit the completely black eye shapes were sorta freaky.

 

Sam reached over and shook the man awake.

 

“Oh shit, did I fall asleep? I must’ve been more tired than I thought,” he said with an uneasy laugh. 

 “Yeah… I got your food,” he said handing him the packages before sitting in the car himself, as the driver finally took off for the airport.

 

* * *

 

The rest of the travel home went pretty quietly as both of the men were pretty tired from their day out. By the time the plane landed back in New York, it was nearly midnight, though at least Tony had sent cars to pick the both of them up, and they split they’re separate ways, with Sam heading towards the compound, and Spidey to who-knows-where (but most likely somewhere in Queens).

 

On the drive back to the compound though, Sam spent the time going over his day. Everything seemed bleary now that he was thinking back on it in his half-asleep haze, but the words of the other Avengers kept coming to his mind, the so-called suspicious activity of Spider-Man and Toomes… it all just random coincidences, right? But some of the things that had happened earlier that day did seem rather suspicious- the fact that he was easily able to find the vent even though it was nearly impossible to see those cracks, how he was correct in guessing it was the way out,  _ and _  the exact weapon being used… hell, he had even tried texting Ned, but now Sam wasn’t so sure that that was actually the person he attempting to contact.

 

And sure, he had provided excuses for both his entry and escape, but both of them sounded so laughably unreal, that at the time Sam doubted he was lying, since who would make up something that fake-sounding unless... it really was true?

 

But what if that was what Spider-Man  _ wanted _  them to think? It was pretty smart actually, but now sam was starting to see through to the truth- or at least what might be the truth.

 

Sam sighed as he thought about this. Things were never what they seemed, and even the nicest seeming people could be wicked- you could never know what they were really like. 

 

But in Spider-Man’s case, he was determined to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry there is literally no logic in this at all, pls don't question it cuz even I don't know what the fuck is going on
> 
> Wait do the Harvey's in America carry poutine btw??? I kinda put it in randomly cuz I really felt like poutine while writing this, and I don't really feel like taking it out cuz honestly poutine deserves a place in everything in life, and at this point I should shut up and sleep before I write a seven-hundred word essay on how much I love poutine....
> 
> That being said, who the thief was in the D.O.D.C will be brought up again, as will Spidey and Vulture, so the slightest bit of plot is in my fic, but it probably won't be brought up for awhile tbh...
> 
> Also I want u guys to know that this was never supposed to be a comedy fic, but then something happened along the way, and now its a borderline crack fic, like honestly idk what happened man...


End file.
